SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023
Thundercrack! (solo installation), Mercury 20 Gallery, Oakland
Squint (solo installation), MAG Galleries, San Francisco
2022
16:9 (solo installation), catalog, Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2021
Allegory of Inclination (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2020
Family Album (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2019
Jack & Mack (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2018
Study for a Series: Love (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2017
"Out of Breath," sound installation, included in the exhibition Love & Longing, curated by Melissa Day, Root Division, San Francisco
Objects of Mutual Affection, Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland
Stavros at His Bath (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2016
Sexting (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
Mercury 20 at 10, Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2015
Scylla & Charybdis (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2014
Chris Komater & Rita Cihlar Hermann, Burkholder Project, Lincoln, Nebraska
A Bouquet of Bears & a Dozen Little Roses (solo installation), Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2013
Small Works, Mercury Twenty Gallery, Oakland
2007
Garden (solo installation), Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco
2006
Spring (solo installation), Meridian Gallery, San Francisco
Honeymoon Hotel (online solo installation), Marjorie Wood Gallery, San Francisco
2005
Hairy Bodies, The LAB, San Francisco
2003
Out of Breath (online solo installation), Marjorie Wood Gallery, San Francisco
R&D: 20 Years, 20 Artists, The LAB, San Francisco
2002
The Armory Photography Show, The Armory, New York
Disembodied.Reconfigured, Soundvision Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Orange, Hey Gallery, Oakland, California
Configuring Identity: Fragmented Self & Others (catalog), Untitled [Space] Gallery, New Haven, CT
Crush: Obsession, Desire & Idolatry, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston
2001
Harem (solo show), Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston
2000
Something About the Girl, Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston
Chris Komater: New Work (solo show), Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
Knowing You, Knowing Me, curated by Dean Smith (catalog), The LAB, San Francisco
Love Stinks, curated by Harry Roche, Gallery Luscombe, San Francisco
1999
Ideal City (solo installation), Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
1998
Bottoms Up, co-curator with Robert Glück (catalog), The LAB, San Francisco
Dark Passage, poster series for 24 advertising kiosks on Market Street, San Francisco Arts Commission Market Street Art-In-Transit Program
Work in Progress, Second Space Gallery, San Francisco
1997
Allegory (solo installation), Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco
Stirred Not Shaken, Refusalon, San Francisco
Night of the Hunter: In Pursuit of the Hirsute (solo installation), Luggage Store Gallery/509 Cultural Center, San Francisco
1996
Betrothed: Contemporary Perspectives on the Bride, Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California
A Shoe Show, Capp Street Project, San Francisco
1995
Obsession, Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco
Millennium Coming: The New Degenerate Art Show, co-curator with Michelle Rollman (catalog), The LAB, San Francisco
Next Time, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California
Anonymous Arrangement, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California
1994
Screening Space: Reflections on the Cinema in Recent Art, Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles
Mirror, Mirror: Gender Roles and the Historical Significance of Beauty (catalog), Oliver Arts Center, California College of the Arts, Oakland, California
1993
High Noon (solo installation), The LAB, San Francisco
Windows, Fillmore Center Interim Arts Project, San Francisco
1991
Site: Western Union, Haines Gallery, San Francisco
EDUCATION
SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE (1984-88), BFA
ZHEJIANG ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS (1987), Hangzhou, China
TOKYO, JAPAN (1986), independent study grant
AWARDS
2005
THE BAUM: AN EMERGING AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER AWARD
Nominee for $10,000 cash award and exhibition of new work at the UC Berkeley Art Museum
1999-2000
SAN FRANCISCO AIDS FOUNDATION
Designer of images for "Assumptions" safe-sex poster and billboard campaign
1999
QUEER ARTS RESOURCE
"www.chriskomater.com" selected as featured 'site-of-the-month'
1998
SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION
Market Street Art-In-Transit Grant
1995
WESTAF-NEA REGIONAL VISUAL ARTS FELLOWSHIP
Sculpture
1994
VILLA MONTALVO CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Artist Residency award, Saratoga, California
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kenneth Baker, “Back to the Past at Western Union,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 27, 1991
Ray Beldner, “The San Francisco Bay Area: Ten Artists on Their Way Up,” Art West, January, 1995
Amy Berk, “Chris Komater at 509 Cultural Center,” Artweek, July, 1997
David Bonetti, “A Telegram Out of the Past,” San Francisco Examiner, December 24, 1991
Brian Bouldrey, editor, Short stories photo illustrations, Harrington Gay Men's Fiction Quarterly, Vol. 1, #3, Fall, 1999
Terri Cohn, “Advanced Placements: Site-Specific Installations in the Bay Area,” Visions Art Quarterly, Summer, 1992
Sarah Coleman, “Critic's Choice: ‘Knowing You, Knowing Me,’” San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 17, 2000
William Corbett, “Cover Story: Entering Komater's Harem,” artsMEDIA Magazine, February 15-March 15, 2001
Jon Denton, “Reviews: West Coast - Recent Work at Patricia Sweetow Gallery,” Art Papers, July/August, 1999
Peter Frank, “Art Picks of the Week: ‘Screening Space,’” LA Weekly, August 12-18, 1994
Roberto Friedman, “Out & About: Fur and Bellies,” Bay Area Reporter, May 8, 1999
Beth Goldberg, “Through the Looking Glasses: Female Identity De- and Reconstructed in Bay Area,” Visions Art Quarterly, Spring/Summer, 1995
Robert Glück, with photos by Chris Komater, “Ten Illustrations for the Fall of the House of Usher,” ZYZZYVA #58, Spring Issue, 2000
Robert Glück, “Cell,” essay accompanying online solo installation, Marjorie Wood Gallery online, www.marjoriewoodgallery.com, May/June, 2003
Glen Helfand, “Stirred Not Shaken,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 19, 1997
Glen Helfand, “Critics’ Pick: ‘Hairy Bodies,’” ARTFORUM Online, February, 2005
Shawn Hill, “Refracted Intimacies,” Bay Windows, February 15, 2001
Mary Hull Webster, “Manipulated Desires,” Artweek, July 21, 1994
Steven Jenkins, “For Your Eyes Only,” Bay Area Reporter, March 27, 1997
Steven Jenkins, “Up Close & Personal: Chris Komater's ‘Allegory’ at Sweetow,” Bay Area Reporter, October 9, 1997
Kevin Killian, The Kink of Chris Komater, chapbook/catalog essay, 1999
Cate McQuaid, “Beauty Gets a Makeover..,” Boston Globe, February 8, 2001
Christopher Millis, "On and Off the Street," Boston Phoenix, February, 2001
Laura Moriarty, book cover design by Chris Komater, Nude Memoir, Krupskaya Books, 2000
Barbara Morris, “‘Knowing You, Knowing Me,’ at The LAB,” Artweek, June, 2000
Bruce Nixon, editor, “Memory and Time,” Artweek, April 7, 1994
Wayne Northcross, “Art Portfolio: Chris Komater,” Pride.02 Magazine, p. 115, 2002
David Pagel, “Reflections on Cinema,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1994
Harry Roche, “Critic's Choice: ‘High Noon,’” San Francisco Bay Guardian, October 27, 1993
Harry Roche, “Art, Museums and Galleries: Chris Komater,” San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 14, 1997
Scott Ruesher, "The Bear Body: Komater's Boston Exhibit, Reviewed," ArtsEditor, March 2001
Donna Schumacher, “Chris Komater,” Art Papers, September/October, 1997
JoAnne Severns Northrup, “‘Love Stinks’ at Gallery Luscombe,” Artweek, April, 2000
Kathleen Shields, “Chris Komater,” Parallaxis; Fifty-Five Points to View, pp 75, 128, 1997
Ruthe Stein, “Gallery Puts Art in Real Life Settings,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 15, 1990
Ron Suresha & Scott McGillvray editors, Fur: The Love of Hair, hardcover, Bruno Gmünder publisher, May 2012
Robin Tremblay-McGaw, “What's More Crude Than a Curl? The Photographs of Chris Komater,” Lipstick Eleven, Issue #2, 2001
David White, “Beauty and the Beef: The Pornographic Renaissance of Photographer Chris Komater,” Unzipped Magazine, pp. 22-23, August, 2003