Andrea Zittel was born in 1965 in Escondido, California; she lives and works in Joshua Tree, California.
Over the last 25 years, Andrea Zittel has developed an unparalleled practice that encompasses spaces, objects and modes of living in an ongoing investigation into what it means to exist and participate in our culture today. While nurturing a symbiosis of formal abstraction and function, Zittel explores core questions of “How to live?” and “What gives life meaning?” through an examination of social norms, values, hierarchies, as well as the creation of new systems and structures for living. Bodies of work, such as Wagon Stations, Living Units, Planar Pavilions, and Uniforms, suggest systems that can allow for liberation and creativity through prescribed sets of limitations rather than total freedom, and reshape how we think about our needs and articulated human constructs. Since 2000, Zittel continues to develop her life project A-Z West in the Southern Mojave Desert––an evolution from A-Z East––as well as High Desert Test Sites, as testing grounds for her work and investigations of day-to-day living. The over 50-acre grounds, as well as numerous satellite properties, are sites for experimentation, where environment, structure, and elements shape an intentional context for experience.

Her solo shows include: Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2018); Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2017); Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Palm Springs (2017 - 2015); Middelheim Museum (2015); The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2012); Magasin 3, Stockholm (2011); Schaulager, Basel (2008); MOCA, Los Angeles (2007); Albright Knox Museum, Buffalo (2007); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2006); Whitney Museum at American Art at Altria, New York (2006); Louisiana Museum, Denmark (1996); Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati (1996); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1995); San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego (1987).

Her group shows include: Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2017), Fondazione Prada, Milano (2017); SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe (2017); Museo Salvatore Ferragamo, Firenze (2016); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2013, 2005, 2000, 1996); MOCA The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2010, 1996); The National Art Center, Tokyo (2007); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2002, 2001, 1997); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2000); P.S. 1, Contemporay Art Center, New York (1997); The Art Institute of Chicago (1995); New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (1994, 1993).

Her work was also exhibited in important and renewed venues such as the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2004, 1995), Aperto ‘93: Emergency/Emergenza, 45. Biennale di Venezia, Venice, I (1993), 16th Istanbul Biennial, İstanbul (2019) and Documenta X, Kassel D (1997).