BIO/CV, EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS
Osceola Refetoff’s images are produced using film, digital, infrared, and pinhole exposures, according to what best expresses the character of his subjects. Despite his documentarian impulses, and the fact that his images deliberately depict quite ordinary, even mundane subjects, he trains on them a hyper-realistic and nuanced vision, often yielding surreal, even dreamlike images.
His environmental photojournalism is regularly featured on PBS SoCal's multi-Emmy-winning program Artbound, and in The Guardian, The New York Times, and The New Republic, earning Los Angeles Press Club awards for Best Photo Essay (2018, 2019, 2020) and Photojournalist of the Year (2018). The desert window series It's a Mess Without You is The British Journal of Photography's OpenWalls Arles 2020 Outstanding Series Winner, and has been exhibited in England, France, Italy, Estonia, and the United States. Recently returned from an artist residency in Svalbard, near the North Pole, his work is represented in Los Angeles by Von Lintel Gallery and in Palm Desert, California by Melissa Morgan Fine Arts.
A graduate of New York University’s MFA Film Program, Refetoff’s motion picture background informs his cinematic approach to constructing visual narratives. His process typically happens “in camera,” at the moment of capture, in a kind of alchemical reaction that transforms the external world into something both unchanged and extraordinary, realistic and magical.
Photo: Teodoro Maniaci
Refetoff consciously and convincingly posits himself as an inheritor of both the heroic tradition of Western landscape photography and its anti-heroic 'new topographic' offspring; he shares bloodlines with Ansel and Robert Adams alike. This requires a technical and artistic balancing act, an act at which Refetoff is becoming increasingly, even masterfully, adept.
Peter Frank – Art Critic, Los Angeles, California
RECENT, CURRENT & FORTHCOMING
Melissa Morgan Fine Arts – After Glow – Palm Desert, CA – thru June 30
Huntington Beach Art Center – By Degrees: Art and Our Changing Ecology – Curated by Luciana Abait and Larry Gipe – Huntington Beach, CA - Opens Saturday, April 15, 6:30-9pm, thru June 10
Building Bridges Art Exchange – Exhibition/Artist Residency in Association with NASA – Santa Monica, CA – Summer 2023
The Museum of Art & History – Magic & Realism – Solo Exhibition – Lancaster, CA – Jan 2025
Chungking Studio – Zen Psychosis – Solo Exhibition & Book Launch – Los Angeles, CA – book sales & viewing by appointment
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
Galerie Huit Arles – It's a Mess Without You – In Situ Solo Installation – Arles, France – 2020, 2022
Von Lintel Gallery – If These Walls Could Talk – Santa Monica, CA – 2021
Von Lintel Gallery – Kinematic Exposures – Los Angeles, CA – 2020
Launch LA – Paradox California – with Chelsea Dean – Los Angeles, CA – 2019
The Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – High & Dry: Land Artifacts – Lancaster, CA – 2018
Unita – Scapes – Curated by Hayley Marie Colston – El Segundo, CA – 2018
Porch Gallery – It’s a Mess Without You – Ojai, CA – 2017
Chungking Studio – Alternate Processes – Los Angeles, CA – 2016
FAB-Gallery – High and Dry – Curated by Delia Cabral – Santa Monica, CA – 2016
Chungking Studio – Scott A. Trimble: Painting & Osceola Refetoff: Photography – Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot – Los Angeles, CA – 2016
Inglewood Public Library – Chasing Pavement – Inglewood, CA – 2015
Torrance Art Museum – Museum Tour – Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Torrance, CA – 2015
Chungking Studio/Month of Photography LA – Magic and Realism – Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot – Los Angeles, CA – 2015
Chungking Studio – Flirting with Disaster – Los Angeles, CA – 2014
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 – High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain – West Hollywood, CA – 2014
Chungking Studio – Dust to Dust – Los Angeles, CA – 2013
ArtShare LA – After the Fight – Los Angeles, CA – 1998
M System – Panorama – Long Beach, CA – 1998
UnUrban – Desert City – Santa Monica, CA – 1997
InsideART – Photographs by Osceola Refetoff – Chicago, IL – 1995
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Center for Photographic Art – International Juried Exhibition – Juried by Paul Kopeikin – Carmel, CA
Los Angeles Center of Photography – Public Record: Portraits of Affection and Intimacy – Curated by Richard Renaldi – Los Angeles, CA
The Museum of Art and History – Human Natures: Selections from the Permanent Collection – Lancaster, CA
Melissa Morgan Fine Arts – Sightlines – Curated by Andi Campognone – Palm Desert, CA
2021
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 – Open Show – Juried by Peter Frank – Los Angeles, CA
Center for Photographic Art – 2021 Int'l Juried Exhibition – Juried by Debra Klomp Ching & Darren Ching – Carmel, CA
Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Bert Green – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hollywood, CA
The Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Golden Hour: California Photography (New Permanent Collection Acquisitions) – Lancaster, CA
LA Center of Photography – Exploring Humanity (Virtual) – Juried by Marisa Caichiolo – Los Angeles, CA
2020
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 – Open Show – Juried by Shana Nys Dambrot – Los Angeles, CA
Photo London – Kinematic Exposures (Virtual) – Von Lintel Gallery – London, UK
Los Angeles Center of Photography – The Creative Portrait (1st Prize) – Juried by Paul Kopeikin – Los Angeles, CA
Center for Photographic Art – International Juried Exhibition – Juried by Aline Smithson – Carmel, CA
Gallery 825 – Los Angeles Art Association Annual Benefit Auction – West Hollywood, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – Liquid~Sky – Juried by Elizabeth Flinsch – Minneapolis, MN
Gallery 825 – Out There (Virtual) – Juried by Bert Green – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hollywood, CA
TZ Projects – Going Home: A Picture Show – Exhibition in Gallery Windows – West Hollywood, CA
Center for Photographic Art – 2020 Member Exhibition – Juried by Ann Jastrab & Laura Sackett – Carmel, CA
Los Angeles Art Association – Online Seclusion (Virtual) – West Hollywood, CA
The Hive Gallery – California Love – Featured Artist – Curated by Michael Rababy – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Penumbra – Juried by Ray Beldner – West Hollywood, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – Words, Words, Words – Juried by Dallas Crow – Minneapolis, MN
Startup Art Fair LA – Launch LA – Venice, CA
A.G. Geiger Fine Art Books – Zen Psychosis Book Launch – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Floating Worlds – Juried by Juri Koll, Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – West Hollywood, CA
2019
The Museum of Art & History (MOAH) – Photography: Beyond the Surface (Selections from the Permanent Collection) – Lancaster, CA
The Museum of Western Film History – A Celebration of the Alabama Hills – Lone Pine, CA
Gallery 825 – Coy – Juried by Phyllis Hofberg – West Hollywood, CA
Merchant Gallery – Electric Koolaid Banana – Curated by Marischa Slusarski – Santa Monica, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – The Abstract Image – Juried by Elizabeth Flinsch – Minneapolis, MN
Fahle Gallery– Edge to Edge – Curated by Juri Koll – Tallinn, Estonia
dnj Gallery – LACP's Sixth Annual Members' Exhibition – Juried by Douglas McCulloh – Santa Monica, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – Mono-Kromatik – Juried by Sandrine Hermand-Grisel – Minneapolis, MN
Kopeikin Gallery – The Vision Board – Curated by Elizabeth Valdez – Culver City, CA
Von Lintel Gallery – Does Not Reproduce – Los Angeles, CA
Brand Library & Art Center – Blind Courier – Curated by Hilary Baker & Lauren Kasmer – Glendale, CA
Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Cliff Benjamin/Western Project – West Hollywood Pride Month, W. Hollywood, CA
The Center for Fine Art Photography – Life of Water – Juried by Jennifer Shaw – Fort Collins, CO
The Hive Gallery – Photoplay – Featured Artist – Curated by Michael Rababy – Los Angeles, CA
Art Palm Springs – Out in the Street – Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Palm Springs, CA
2018
Arena 1 Gallery – Between Two Seas/LA International – Curated by Luigia Martelloni – Santa Monica, CA
Rebecca Molayem Gallery – Out and About – 4 Artist Show – Los Angeles, CA
Muzeumm – Out in the Street – Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Los Angeles, CA
Shockboxx Gallery – Don't Shoot Me Down – Juried by Peggy Sivert Zask – Hermosa Beach, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Ctr – The Found Object – Juried by Laura Migliorino – Minneapolis, MN
Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporanea (MAAAC) – Between Two Seas – Curated by Luigia Martelloni – Cisternino, Italy
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 – Hecho a Mano – Curated by Jillith Moniz – West Hollywood, CA
Gallery 825 – Los Angeles Art Association Annual Benefit Auction – West Hollywood, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – The Telling Image – Juried by Ross Anderson – Minneapolis, MN
Los Angeles Art Association – Apocrypha – Juried by Thomas Caravan – West Hollywood, CA
Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Jessica Silverman – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hollywood, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – Making Strange – Juried by Chuck Avery – Minneapolis, MN
The Hive Gallery – Analog vs. Digital – Curated by Michael Rababy – Los Angeles, CA
Praxis Photographic Arts Center – Empty Spaces : Abandoned Spaces – Juried by Ross Anderson – Minneapolis, MN
Broadsided Press – Bearing Arms: Responding to Guns in American Culture
Duncan Miller Gallery/YourDailyPhotograph.com – The New Pictorialists – Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot & Osceola Refetoff
2017
Venice Institute of Contemporary Art/Newberry Lofts – Art in Place – Long Beach, CA
Launch LA/Avenue 50 Studio – Seismic Shift - Confronting Catastrophe – Curated by MacKenzie Stevens – Highland Park, CA
Gallery 825 – Personal Vacation – Juried by Chris Davies (CEO Fabrik Media) – West Hollywood, CA
The Six – Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Curated by Sarah Stone – Calabasas, CA
MuzeuMM – Gimme 5! – Curated by Juri Koll & Mishelle Moross – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Los Angeles Art Association Annual Benefit Auction – West Hollywood, CA
Los Angeles Art Association – Out There – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hollywood, CA
Art Share LA – M.A.R.S. Festival – Curated by Shana Nys Dambrot – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Make America – Juried by Nancy L. Meyer (LA Nomadic Division) – West Hollywood, CA
Coachella Valley Art Center – Desert Island – Curated by Cristopher Cichocki – Indio, CA
Marks Art Ctr – Desert Waters – Curated by Sant Khalsa – Desert X Parallel Program – Palm Desert, CA
Red Barn (UCSB) – Somewhere to Nowhere at All – Curated by Tom Pazderka – Santa Barbara, CA
Space 15 Twenty – Month of Photography Los Angeles Show (MoPLA) – Curated by Jessica Sample – Hollywood, CA
Chungking Studio – Focal Planes – 3 Artist Show with Cristopher Cichocki & Jay Mark Johnson
Photo LA/The REEF – FOCUS Photo LA Open Show Finalists Exhibition – Los Angeles, CA
2016
The Main Museum – Office Hours – Inaugural Art Exhibition Curated by Allison Agsten – Los Angeles, CA
The Loft at Liz's – GUNS – Curated by Betty Anne Brown, Liz Gordon & Anita Storm – Los Angeles, CA
Millard Sheets Art Center – The Art Classic: Oasis – Curated by Thomas Caravan – Pomona, CA
SugarMynt Gallery – Round Em Up – South Pasadena, CA
Art Share LA – Flight Patterns – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Francisco George & William Escalera – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hollywood, CA
Palm Springs Art Museum – Open Desert – Curated by Cristopher Cichocki – Palm Springs, CA
MuseuMM – Abstract Never Is... – Curated by Juri Koll & Mishelle Moross – Los Angeles, CA
Palm Springs Art Fair – Oculus Clamantis in Deserto: Splendor and Disaster in the California Outback – Curated by Peter Frank – Palm Springs, CA
The Gabba Gallery – Curate This – Curated by Jason Ostro & Phil Santos – Los Angeles, CA
Photo LA/The REEF – Abstract Never Is... – Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Los Angeles, CA
Photo LA/The REEF – Round Hole, Square Peg 2 – Artist's Corner – Los Angeles, CA
Earth WE Gallery – Art Makes Change – Santa Monica, CA
2015
Santa Monica Museum of Art – VisionLA 2015 Climate Action Arts Festival – Santa Monica, CA
SugarMynt Gallery – When Jupiter Aligns with Mars – Curated by Jeanie Frias – South Pasadena, CA
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art – Fashionistas Fight Back! – Juried by Shana Nys Dambrot – Santa Ana, CA
The Art Gallery/Glendale Community College – Water Works II – Glendale, CA
Art Share LA – Ode to the 6th Street Bridge – Curated by Dale Youngman & Tanner Blackman – Los Angeles, CA
Chungking Studio – Trade Show – Los Angeles, CA
Angel City Brewery – Angel City Heritage Arts & Music Festival – Los Angeles, CA
Porch Gallery – Water Works II – Juried by Peter Frank, John Yau, Juri Koll & Heather Stobo – Ojai, CA
Art Share LA – Haunted Landscapes – Los Angeles, CA
The Lucie Foundation/Santa Monica Art Studios – Realities & Concepts – Curated by Meredith Marlay
Wilding Cran Gallery/Chungking Studio – Bunnymania – Curated by Peter Frank & Delia Cabral – Los Angeles, CA
LA Art Association/Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Francisco George & William Escalera – West Hollywood, CA Pride Month
Los Angeles Art Show – Uniting the World Through Art: Four Chinese Photographers, Four Los Angeles Photographers – Los Angeles, CA
Photo LA/The REEF – Los Angeles Art Association: Three Artist Exhibition – Los Angeles, CA
2014
SCA Project Gallery – The Life of Things – Five Artist Exhibition Curated by Johnny Fox – Pomona, CA
LA Art Association/Gallery 825 – Out There: I Do – Juried by Francisco George & William Escalera – West Hollywood, CA
Chungking Studio/MoPLA – Fact + Friction – with Aline Smithson, Clay Lipsky & Mark Indig – Los Angeles, CA
2013
Gallery 825 – Pop Über Alles – Juried by Timothy Potts (Director, J. Paul Getty Museum) – West Hollywood, CA
The San Diego Art Institute – The Art of Photography – San Diego, CA
I-5 Gallery – 10 Fold – Los Angeles, CA
Gallery 825 – Out There – Juried by Francisco George & William Escalera – West Hollywood Pride Month – West Hwd, CA
2012
Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825 – Open Show – Juried by Rebecca Morse (MOCA LA) – Los Angeles, CA
The San Diego Art Institute – The Art of Photography – San Diego, CA
Gallery 825 – Open Show – Juried by Charlie Manzo (Gagosian Gallery, NY) – West Hollywood, CA
2011
Soho House – Group Show – Curated by Audrey Landreth – West Hollywood, CA
Galleria Obscura – Things to Come – Los Angeles, CA
Art Platform Los Angeles (LA Mart/Month of Photography LA) – The Lucie Foundation Exhibition – Los Angeles, CA
Hi-Lite Studio/Month of Photography LA – A Place in the Sun: Picturing California – Curated by Audrey Landreth – Los Angeles, CA
Terrell Moore Gallery/Month of Photography LA – Downtown: Incomplete LA – Featured Artist – Curated by Peter Mays
Gallery at the End of the World – The Last Show – Curated by Ben McGinty – Altadena, CA
2008
Pacific Design Center – Concentric Circles – Location Managers Guild of America – Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED PRESS (LINK)
COLLECTIONS
Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers – Los Angeles, CA
The Chouinard Foundation – South Pasadena, CA
LA Studios – Los Angeles, CA
Location Managers Guild International – Los Angeles, CA
Lone Pine Film History Museum – Lone Pine, CA
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles Public Library – Downtown Central Library Photo Collection – Los Angeles, CA
Marmol Radziner – Architects – Los Angeles, CA/San Francisco, CA
Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporanea (MAAAC) – Cisternino, Puglia, Italy
The Museum of Art & History – (MOAH) Lancaster, CA
Xavier Soule – Owner & President, VU’ Agency & VU’ Gallery – Paris, France
Teresa Wayne – Senior Vice-President, Warner Bros Pictures – Burbank, CA
AWARDS, PROJECTS, CURATIONS & RESIDENCIES
Photojournalist / Editor – High & Dry – KCET/PBS SoCal – 2013-2023
The Arctic Circle Artist Residency – Aboard the barkentine tall ship Antigua in the Arctic Circle – Svalbard (Norway) Oct 2022
Juror – Prix de la Photographie Paris (Px3) – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
Los Angeles Press Club – Photojournalist of the Year (2nd Place) – 2021
Los Angeles Press Club – Best Photo Essay: KCET Earth Focus Trona's Boom, Bust and Uncertain Future – 2020
The British Journal of Photography/Galerie Huit Arles – OpenWalls Arles 2020 – Outstanding Series Award (Grand Prize) – 2020
Los Angeles Press Club – Life in the Time of the Coronavirus – Best Photo Essay – 2020
Los Angeles Press Club – Emergency Fund Grant – 2020
LA Center of Photography (LACP) – The Creative Portrait (1st Prize) – 2020
Los Angeles Press Club – Photojournalist of the Year (2nd Place), Best Feature Photo, Best Photo Essay – 2019
Los Angeles Press Club – Best Photo Essay, Photojournalist of the Year – 2018
Curator (with Shana Nys Dambrot) – The New Pictorialists – Duncan Miller Gallery/YourDailyPhotograph.com – 2018
Outdoor Writers Association of California – Writer of the Year, Best Photographic Series, Best Outdoor Medium – 2018
Curator – Focal Planes – Chungking Studio – Los Angeles, CA – 2017
FOCUS Photo LA – Finalist – 2016
Outdoor Writers Association of California – Best Feature Photograph, Best Nature Photograph & Best Overall Photograph – 2016
Curator – Trade Show – Chungking Studio – Los Angeles, CA – 2015
BOOKS & DOCUMENTARIES
Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA) – 2020 Exhibition Catalog – 2020
Griffith Moon Publishing – Zen Psychosis – Novella by Shana Nys Dambrot, Photographs by Osceola Refetoff - 2020
Documentary – Zen Psychosis – 2020
Documentary – Osceola Refetoff: Kinematic Exposures – 2020
Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA) – 2020 Exhibition Catalog – 2020
LensWork Publishing – Seeing in SIXES – 2019
Praxis Gallery – Eight exhibition catalogs including The Found Object (cover image) – 2018-20
Documentary – High & Dry: Land Artifacts – Legacy Films – 2018
Seismic Press – Desert Island – Exhibition Catalog – 2017
MuzeuMM/Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Abstract Never Is... – Exhibition Catalog – 2016
Porch Gallery/Venice Institute of Contemporary Art – Water Works II – Exhibition Catalog – 2015
Coagula Curatorial – California Locos: The Lost LA Years – 2014
San Diego Art Institute – The Art of Photography – Exhibition Catalog – 2012, 2013
Location Managers Guild of America – Downtown: Incomplete LA – Exhibition Catalog – 2011
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority – Concentric Circles: Metro LA Revealed – 2008
EDUCATION
Master of Fine Arts: Film Production – New York University Graduate Film Program – 1991
Paulette Goddard Scholarship
Warner Brothers Fellowship Award
Bachelor of Arts: Film & Mass Communications – Duke University – Durham, NC – 1985
Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) – Drama/Cinema Department – 1984
Sign up for occasional News & Events emails:
