Chroma
The photograph stops delivering what the scene „looked like” and starts delivering what happened when a chromatic rule acted on matter.
John Divola
1949, Los Angeles. BA (1971) – California State University, Northridge. MA (1973), MFA (1974) – University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1975, he has taught photography and art at numerous institutions including California Institute of the Arts (1978-1988), and from 1988 to 2025 he was a Professor of Art at the University of California, Riverside. Currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UCR.
Since 1975, Divola’s work has been featured in more than one hundred solo exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Europe, Mexico, and Australia, including Galerie Marquardt (Paris, 1990), Seibu Gallery (Tokyo, 1987), The University of New Mexico Art Museum (1982), The Patricia Faure Gallery (Los Angeles, 2000) and Janet Borden Gallery (New York, 2001). Since 1973, his work has been included in more than two hundred group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Among Divola’s Awards are Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1976, 1979, 1990), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1986), a Fintridge Foundation Fellowship (1998), a City of Los Angeles Artist Grant (1999) and a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (1998).
Recent books by John Divola: Continuity (Ram Publications/Smart Art Press, 1997), Isolated Houses (Nazraeli Press, 2000), Dogs Chasing My Car In The Desert (Nazraeli Press, 2004), The Green of This Notebook (Nazraeli Press, 2009), As Far As I Could Get (Prestel, 2013), Chroma (Skinnerboox, 2020), Terminus (Mack Books, 2021), Scapes (Skinnerboox, 2022), and upcoming, Sheila (TBW Book, 2026).
John Divola works primarily with photography and digital imaging. While he has approached a broad range of subjects he is currently moving through the landscape looking for the oscillating edge between the abstract and the specific.
