SAN MARINO, CA.- Los-Angeles based artist Lari Pittman (b. 1952) is known for his exuberant, colorful, and graphically complex works. Huntington visitors can see the artist at his hallucinogenic best in a new exhibition opening this fall. Six monumental illustrated books, each opening to more than four feet in width, contain 65 paintings by the artist. They draw from a variety of aesthetic traditions, ranging from decorative art and design to advertising and folk art. Combined with Pittman’s brilliant draftsmanship and acidic color, the images advance an astute and acerbic social commentary embedded in narratives rich with real and invented mythologies.

The impact of the books is further elevated by an installation conceived by award-winning Los Angeles architect Michael Maltzan. Grand, sculptural pedestals hold the books open so visitors can enjoy a direct, unimpeded experience. Page openings will be changed periodically during the run of the show, and a large touch screen will make it possible to view all the paintings and text in sequential order.

Pittman’s meticulously layered paintings and works on paper have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Surveys of his work include those held at Le Consortium, Dijon, France; the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Corcoran Gallery of Art; the Institute of Contemporary Art, London; the Villa Arson, France; the Center for Contemporary Art in Geneva, Switzerland; and upcoming exhibitions at the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA (2016) and the Hammer Museum (2018). Pittman has been included in four Biennial Exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and showed work at Documenta X in Germany. Solo gallery exhibitions include those held at Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Gladstone Gallery, New York; Monika Sprüth-Philomene Magers Gallery, Munich; and Thomas Dane Gallery, London.

Among his group shows are The Art of Our Time, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art; Earthly Delights and This Will Have Been: Art, Love, & Politics in the 1980s, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, IL; The Spectacular of Vernacular, curated by Darsie Alexander, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Couples Discourse, Palmer Museum of Art; Los Angeles 1955-1985, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement, San Jose Museum of Art; Disparities & Deformations: Our Grotesque, Site Santa Fe; Made in California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art.

His works are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museo de Arte Contemporana, Monterrey, Mexico; Phoenix Museum of Art, Arizona; Yale University Art Museum; the Broad Foundation, Los Angeles; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and numerous private collections worldwide.

Pittman has received a Getty Fellowship for the Visual Arts as well as three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. The artist is represented by Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York; Studio Guenzani, Milan; and Thomas Dane Gallery, London. Rizzoli published a comprehensive monograph of Pittman's works in 2011.