MINNETTE LEHMANN
AKA: MALKABorn: 1928 Sacramento, CaliforniaLives in San FranciscoEducation: University of California, Berkeley B.A. Sociology, 1949San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A., 1972Minnette Lehmann, born in Sacramento, got out as soon as she could and attended UC Berkeley from 1945-49. There, she married Robert Martinson, leader of the anti-Loyalty Oath demonstrations. Fueled by Marx & Freud, she helped establish Pete Martin’s City Lights Books alongside Maya and Jordan Belson. After leaving Martinson and living in Paris and the Middle East for a year, she returned to San Francisco and taught Kindergarten. She met and married Herbert Lehmann, a psychoanalyst, and became an (agitated) wife/mother involved in the Women’s Movement. She later re-entered the art world using her son’s camera at the SF State anti-Vietnam Demonstrations. She earned an MFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute. After receiving a NEA grant for photos that questioned the institution of marriage, she taught the History of Photography and did studio work throughout the Bay Area. Major shows throughout the 1980s and 90s were Thin Skin at New York's Grey Gallery and Naked Portraits at San Francisco’s Camerawork, and Amazing at the Lab. She did Performance by way of Linda Montano and has finally realized her ambitions as painter, having her first painting show in 2025.Selected Shows:
2025 Adobe Books, ‘Malka!’, San Francisco
2020 Pro Arts Commons, ‘Invocation Democracy’, Oakland
2016 Krowswork Gallery, Prints and Painting, Oakland
2013 Margaret Tedesco’s 2nd Floor Studio, ‘Leather Nun Lament’, San Francisco
2010 Richard Taylor Gallery, ‘Friends, Figures and Self-Portraits’, San Francisco
2000 The Lab, ‘Amazing’, San Francisco
1995 The Lab, ‘Millennium Coming: The New Degenerate Art Show, San Francisco
1993 San Francisco State, ‘Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida’, San Francisco
1991 Grey Gallery, ‘Thin Skin’ New York
1989 San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, ‘Without a Trace of the Fear of Death’, San Francisco
1989 LACE Gallery, ‘I Want To Be Perfect for You’ Los Angeles
1988 Aperture/Burden Gallery, ‘The Return of the Hero’ New York
1987 Media Gallery, ‘GoryAllegories’, San Francisco
1986 Houston Center for Photography, ‘Recoding Sexuality’, Houston
1986 Das ActFoto, ‘The Nude’, Munich, Germany
1981 Camerawork Gallery, ‘Naked Portraits’ San FranciscoPerformance/Readings:2000 Min-Isis, New Langton Arts, San Francisco
1996 My Affair With Phillip K. Dick, Symposium on Outer Space, Four Walls Gallery, San Francisco
1996 The 2nd Incident: Public Mourning with Linda Montano, The ICA, London
1993 Feminism: What Kind? Mother Monsters, Women’s Art Project, The Women’s Building, San Francisco
1993 The Sphinx Speaks, The Women’s Building, San Francisco
1992 Christ Mocked Again, St. Mary’s College, Moraga
1991 Thin Skin video tape, Grey Gallery, New York
1989 Christ Mocked Again, Artist’s Television Access, San Francisco
1988 Fashion Death, Camerawork Gallery, San Francisco
1988 Andy Warhol Memorial, Society for Photographic Education, San Diego
1988 How Lucid is Camera Lucida? The International Congress of Aesthetics, Nottingham
1987 Comic Horror, WORKS Gallery, San Jose
1987 NipponBurger, New Langton Arts, San Francisco
1986 Julia Kristeva’s Uncanny: Recoding Sexuality in Comic Books, UC San Diego
Published Writing:1989 How Lucid is Camera Lucida?, “Camerawork” San Francisco
1988 More Gore & When I Was a Boy, Blind Date #6, “Photometro”, San Francisco
'85-87 Theory/Flesh, co-editor with Lutz Bacher and Steve Dietz, Berkeley
1985 Fashion Death, “Ink Magazine 2”, San Francisco
1981 Art in Everyday Life, (photo editor) with Linda Montano & Astro Artz
1988 Aperture/Burden Gallery, ‘The Return of the Hero’ New York
1986 Houston Center for Photography, ‘Recoding Sexuality’, Houston
1981 Camerawork Gallery, ‘Naked Portraits’ San Francisco
Reviews:
1991 Stand Up Theory, Elliot Linwood, High Performance Magazine
1989 Rehearsals for Death, Mark Van Proyen, ArtWeek
1989 Sexual Representation and Feminist Transgression in Film, Video and Photography, Christine Tamblyn
Society for Photographic Education, Rochester, NYGrants:1975 Artist Fellowship in Photography, NEA