Linda Simmel (born in Los Angeles) is a Bay Area artist. Her art practice includes painting, drawing and printmaking . Simmel’s dark landscaped-based paintings and historically-based etchings explore the influence of history on a psyche and subsequent feelings of longing. Simmel received her BFA from the University of California at Berkeley and was represented by Takada Gallery. She spent a decade traveling to and showing in and around Berlin, becoming an international participant in the newly formed artist collective “Atelierhaus Panzerhalle e.V”, which was set in a tank repair workshop and ruinous surrounding barracks of a military base in the forests of Potsdam, Germany. In 2012 Simmel was an artist resident at the Baer Art Center in Iceland, in 2013 an artist at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California, and she has been an artist in residence at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California since 2007. Linda Simmel currently lives and works in Sonoma, California.
curriculum vitae:
Education
University of California at Berkeley: B.F.A. in painting
Solo Exhibitions
2023 “The Hiking Club; A Vocabulary of Yearning”, NUMU, Los Gatos, California
2011 Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos, California
2008 Truro Fine Art Studio, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
2004 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
1998 Nexus Gallery, Berkeley, California
1998 Galerie Zunge, Berlin, Germany
1994 Arts & Consciousness Gallery, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California
1993 Galerie "M", Berlin, Germany
1992 Mace Space for Art, San Francisco, California
1992 Kunst und Kulturinitiative, Schoneiche bei Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibitions
2023 “Big Names, Small Art” (BNSA) Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
2023 Kala Art Auction, Berkeley, California
2022 “Terra Firma”, curated by Marianne McGrath, NUMU, Los Gatos, California
2022 “Elemental Landscapes”, California Society of Printmakers Exhibition at ACCI Gallery, Berkeley, California
2022 “Big Names, Small Art (BNSA) Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
2022 Kala Art Auction, Berkeley, California
2021 “Big Names, Small Art” (BNSA) Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
2020 “Feminizing Permanence” Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art, Moraga, California
2019 “Regional Collective: California Society of Printmakers” Janet Turner Print Museum, CSU, Chico, California
2019 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2018 Art Auction, Crocker Art Museum's 40th annual art auction , Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
2018 “Big Names, Small Art” (BNSA), Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
2018 International Contemporary PRINT Making exhibition/forum, Luxembourg (catalogue)
2018 "Generation -2018 The UC Berkeley Art Alumni Exhibition", Worth Ryder Art Gallery, Berkeley, California
2018 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2017 "Waterlines", NUMU. Los Gatos, California
2017 "Meaning Made Visible", Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel, California
2017 "Pressing On: Contemporary Printmaking", curated by Karin Breuer, Richmond Art Center, Richmond California
2016 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2016 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Annual Art Exhibition & Auction, San Jose, California
2016 Anne and Mark's Art Party. San Jose, California
2016 "Scene/Unseen", Saint Mary's College Museum of Art, Moraga, California
2015 "Djerassi: A Legacy", curated by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Ascent Private Capital Management, San Francisco, California
2015 Kala, artMKT, San Francisco, California
2015 Kala's Spring Gala & Auction: "Fresh & Local", Berkeley, California
2014 Anne and Mark's Art Party, San Jose, California
2014 "Everybody's Ocean" curated by Justin Hoover, Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, Santa Cruz, California
2014 "By Invitation Only: Revealing the Landscape" Saint Mary's College Museum of Art, Moraga, California
2014 Kala, artMKT, San Francisco, California
2014 Kala 40 Anniversary Auction, Berkeley, California
2014 "Express an Interest in Listening", curated by Amanda Curreri, Berkeley Central Arts Passage, Berkeley, California
2013 "Print Room Pop Ups", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2012 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2012 "Kalassal", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2012 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Annual Art Exhibition & Auction, San Jose, California
2012 Kala, artMKT, San Francisco, California
2012 "On View: New Work from Kala", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2011 "Lightscape/Darkscape, new work by Kala artists", ArtWorks Downtown, San Rafael, California
2011 "Kalassal", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2011 "Kala-fornia State of the Art", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2010 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2010 "Monoprint Marathon", San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California"
2009 "On View: New Work from Kala", Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2008 "Piece to Piece: Works from Kala", Berkeley, California
2008 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2007 Kala Artist Annual, Berkeley, California
2005 Sector Panzerhalle, Potsdam, Germany
2004 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
2003 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
2003 FrauenMuseum, Bonn, Germany
2002 Waschhaus, Potsdam, Germany
2002 Galerie "M", Berlin, Germany
2002 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001 Works, San Jose, California
2000 "Over the Bridge", California Arts Council, Sacramento, California
2000 Takada Gallery, San Francisco, California
1998 Frants Albert Associates, Oakland, California
1997 Weintraub Thomas Gallery, Sacramento, California
1995 Kunstlerwerkstatt Bahnhof Westend, Berlin, Germany
1994 Robert Hunter Gallery, Sacramento, California
Residencies & Affiliations
2015 juror, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, California
2013-present Drawing Center Viewing Program, New York City, New York
2013 Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, California
2012 Baer Art Center residency, Iceland
2010-present California Society of Printmakers member
2007-present artist in residence at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
2003 nominated for SECA award
Publications & Reviews
2021 2 paintings reproduced in The Racket Journal #45
2014 etching reproduced in Art in Print, "News of the Print World"
2013 etching reproduced in California Society of Printmakers "One Hundred Years 1913-2013"
2009 etching reproduced in Zyzzyva
2001 review in San Jose Mercury News, "Earthbound Collective" by Jack Fischer
1998 review in Die Tageszeitung
1995 review in Neues Deutschland
1993 review in Berlinerzeitung
1992 review in Der Tagesspiegel
1992 featured on East Berlin Brandenburg TV, "Der Unbekannte Ort-Heidehof"
Lectures
2015 Artist Lecture Series, Sonoma State University Department of Art and Art History, Rohnert Park, California
2011 Cabrillo College Gallery, Aptos, California
1994 "First Friday Art Talk", John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California
1993 "Philosophy of Art" graduate seminar, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California
Curatorial Projects
2016 "Scene/Unseen", Saint Mary's College Museum of Art, Moraga, California
2006 "Six from Europe", Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, California
Public Collections
Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, California
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Monterey, California
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California
Saint Mary's College Museum of Art, Moraga, California
Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California