Brian Belott (born 1973, East Orange, New Jersey) is an American artist, performer and curator who lives and works in New York. His work has been exhibited internationally for over two decades and was included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial. Belott has presented solo exhibitions at galleries including Morán Morán (Los Angeles), LOYAL (Stockholm), Tanya Leighton (Berlin), Gavin Brown’s Enterprise (New York), and CANADA (New York). His work has been shown at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (New York), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), COBRA Museum (Amstelveen, Netherlands), Yuz Museum (Shanghai), The Jewish Museum (New York), MoCAD (Detroit), The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, CT), and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne (France).

Belott’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has exhibited with LOYAL since 2005.

Belott’s practice is driven by a serious commitment to absurdity and an unrelenting curiosity that embraces chance, play, and destruction as generative forces. Working across painting, assemblage, sculpture, performance, video, sound, and installation, he combines dissimilar objects and materials —often scavenged from thrift stores, junk shops, and dollar stores— into densely layered compositions that challenge conventional hierarchies of art making. Box fans, cotton balls, calculators, socks, toothpaste, children’s books, and frozen food appear throughout his work, recombined through processes of collage, accumulation, freezing, and reverse-glass painting.

A self-described “Master of Discard,” Belott approaches materials without preciousness, frequently damaging, revising, or reconfiguring his own works. His methods draw from Dada, punk ethos, folk traditions, and children’s art, while remaining deeply aware of —and irreverent toward— modernist abstraction and institutional authority. Humor, failure, and impermanence are central to his work, as he has noted, “The inevitability of destruction creates more creativity.”

Belott has a longstanding engagement with children’s art and the work of psychologist and educator Rhoda Kellogg, whose research into universal forms of mark-making has profoundly influenced his practice. In 2019, he curated an exhibition of Kellogg’s work at White Columns, New York. Through this and other projects, Belott continues to advocate for non-hierarchical forms of creativity and the radical potential of play.

Education

1995 BFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
1994 Cooper Union, New York, NY (thrown out)

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2022
Reassembler 3, CANADA, New York, NY

2021
The Reassembler, Cellar Contemporary, Trento, Italy

2020
The Reassembler, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Circa Skippy, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany
Finally Golden, with Bridget Caramagna, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY

2019
Can Opener Door Stop, Morán Morán, Los Angeles, CA

2018
Brian Belott, Gavin Brown Enterprises, New York, NY

2017
Dr. Kid President Jr., Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY

2016
Puuuuuuuffs, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, CA

2015
Dr. Kid President Jr., 247365, New York, NY
Sweather: Brian Belott, Ross Simonini, Fredricks & Freiser, New York, NY

2014
Cat Food, Brian Belott and Joe Bradley, Retrospective, Hudson, NY

2013
Brian Belott, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
Brian Belott and Michael Mahalchick, Ober Gallery, Kent, CT

2012
Portrait of a Generation: Brian Belott and Taylor McKimens, The Hole, New York, NY
A Goosh Noosh, Zürcher Studio, New York, NY

2011
Windshield Unexpected Wipers: Brian Belott and Jesse Greenberg, Loyal, Malmö, Sweden
Congo Guac, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France

2010
The Joy of File, Zürcher Studio, New York, NY

2009
Jelly Harp, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France

2008
Show #16: Ed Blackburn + Brian Belott. and/or gallery, Dallas, TX
Leyendecker Gallery, Tenerife, Canary Islands
Brian Belott Lost and Found Slide Show, Community Outreach Gallery, London, Canada

2007
Swirly Music, CANADA, New York, NY

2006
Deep Data, Freight and Volume, New York, NY
With Michael Mahalchick, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France

2005
Books, books, books, books, books, books and books, CANADA, New York, NY
Adult Soda, Stefan Stux, New York, NY

2004
What’s Going On, Kenny Schacter, New York, NY

2003
Touching Fantasy Through Color, CANADA, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2025
UPSIDE DOWN ZEBRA, Curated by Brian Belott and Noah Khoshbin, The Watermill Center, Watermill, NY
The World is Garbage, New Discretions, New York, NY
Couch Paintings, Canada, New York ,NY
Love Poems: Curated by Chris Martin (Singing In Unison, Part 11), Anton Kern, New York, NY

2023
The Irreplaceable Human, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Humlebæk, Denmark
Me And My Shadow/ My Shadow And I, Europa ,New York, NY
Canada on Paper, CANADA, East Hampton, NY
Harry Irene, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium

2022
The Drawing Centre Show, Curated by Franck Gautherot, Seungduk Kim, Tobias Pils & Joe Bradley, Le Consortium, Dijon, France
To Begin Again: Artists and Childhood, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Zusammen zeichnen: 201 Cadavres Exquis, Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Museum im Bellpark, Kriens, Switzerland
Evidence, Mercer Union, Toronto, Canada
Lingua Franca, Kapp Kapp Gallery, New York, NY
Singing in Unison: Artists Need to Create on the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy, Curated by Phong H. Bui and Cal McKeever, Part 1: Art Cake, Part 2: The Scully Tomasko Foundation, Part 3: Below Grand, Part 4: Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY

2021
RHODASCOPE: Scribbles, Smears, and the Universal Language of Children According to Rhoda Kellogg, Curated by: Jordan Stein and Lindsey White, Featuring: Drawings from the the Rhoda Kellogg International Child Art Collection, drawings by Rhoda Kellogg and paintings by Brian Belott, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, CA

2020
100! A group exhibition commemorating Loyal’s 100th show, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
Honest Gravy, Marinaro Gallery, New York, NY
Good Trouble, WhiteBox, New York, NY
Brian Belott & Bridget Caramagna: Finally Golden, MOTHER, Beacon, NY
June Viewing Room, Tanya Leighton, Berlin, Germany
Unraveling, Hesse Flatow Tribeca, Tribeca, New York, NY

2019
Whitney Biennial 2019, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Horology, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, NY
Brian Belott’s RHODASCOPE: Scribbles, Smears, and the Universal Language of Children According to Rhoda Kellogg, Curated by Jordan Stein and Lindsey White, San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), San Francisco, CA
White Columns Benefit Auction, White Columns, New York, NY
Pulled In Brooklyn, International Print Center, New York, NY
Just what is it that makes today so different, so appealing?, Gavin Brown’s enterprise at Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, France
Downtown Painting: Presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman Gallery, New York, NY

2018
Maurizio Cattelan: The Artist is Present, The Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China
An Unstoppable Force, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, The Netherlands
The Private Collection of Water McBeer, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY
Objects Like Us, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
Objects to Identify, Moran Moran Los Angeles, CA
Without God or Governance, Marinaro Gallery New York, NY

2017
Performa 17, New York, NY
UNOBSTRUCTED VIEWS, The William Hawkins Ferry House, Michigan
99 Cents or Less, MoCAD, Detroit, MI
Summer Show, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden
Drawing Island, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
Tomorrow Will Still Be Ours, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York, NY

2016
CDCDDCDCDCDD: Brian Belott, Ara Peterson, Constance Tenvik, Steina & Woody Vasulka, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Paper In Practice, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, CA
Hill of Munch, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY
All Summer In A Day, Unclebrother, Hancock, NY
Lost for Words, Murray Guy, New York, NY
XXXmASS, Kate Werble Gallery, New York, NY

2015
Performa 15, New York, NY
Unorthodox, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Third Heat, CANADA, New York, NY
Call and Response, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY

#crowdedhouse, Harper’s, East Hampton, NY
Tiger Tiger, Salon 94, New York, NY
The Guston Effect, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
Some Stew You Got Inside Your Plastic Bag, and You Always Organize the Parts So Close, curated by Torey Thornton, featuring Brian Belott, Eric Mack and Noam Rappaport, Moran Bondaroff, Los Angeles, CA

2014
Buying Friends: The Kortman Collection, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
Surface Protection Plus, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Purple States, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Jeunes créateurs à New York, Musée d’Art moderne de Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France
Brian Belott, Paul DeMuro, Amy Feldman, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France
The Age of Small Things, curated by Chuck Webster, Dodge Gallery, New York, NY
If you’re accidentally not included, don’t worry about it, Curated by Peter Saul, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France and New York, NY
Zurtopia curated by Austin Thomas Galerie Zürcher, New York, NY
Go with the Flow, The Hole, New York, NY
Save It For Later, Sotheby’s, New York, NY
Don’t Look Now, Curated by 247365, Feuer/Mesler, New York, NY
OK Great Thanks this is so Ridiculous, ACME, Los Angeles, CA
Particular Pictures, Curated by Joshua Abelow, Emily Ludwig Shaffer, Suzanne Geiss, New York, NY

2013
Elements, Rudiments and Principles, Organized by Dana Frankfort, Boston University Art Gallery (BUAG), Boston, MA
Draw Gym, 247365, New York, NY
Brian Belott and Michael Mahalchick, Ober Gallery, Kent, CT
Deep Cuts, Organized by Wendy White and David Humphrey, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, NY
Summer Reading, The Hole, New York, NY

2012
Portrait of a Generation, The Hole, New York, NY
Back From L.A., Galerie Zürcher, New York, NY
This is How My Brain Works, Radiator Gallery, New York, NY
Cutters/Cork: Contemporary Collage Exhibition, Curated by James Gallagher, West Cork Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
POSTERMAT, The Hole, New York, NY

2011
Underemployed, Galerie Zürcher, New York, NY
Dadarhea, Curated by Jim Drain and Devin Flynn, CANADA, New York, NY
Spaghetti and Beachballs, Studio Rafaelli, Trento, Italy
Go Figure, DODGE gallery, New York, NY
Summer Salt, Dinter Fine Art and The Proposition, New York, NY
Dirt Don’t Hurt, Jolie Laide, Philadelphia, PA
So Zik!, Ober Gallery, Kent, CT
Facemaker, Curated by Kathy Grayson, Royal/t, Los Angeles, CA
Paper A-Z, Sue Scott Gallery, New York, NY
Salon Zurcher, Zurcher Studio, New York, NY

2010
Philadelphia Out of Phase, Curated by Justin Samson, Bodega, Philadelphia, PA
The NY Art Book Fair, MoMA PS1 in The Classroom, New York, NY
Consider the Oyster, Curated by Ingrid Dinter, James Graham and Sons, New York, NY
Salad Days, The Journal, Brooklyn, NY
De-Nature, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Out of Order, Curated by Scott Hug, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Kook Books, Bravinlee, New York, NY
Mutant Pop, Curated by Dearraindrop and Brandon Joyce, Loyal, Malmö, Sweden
August Group Show, Co-curated by Eddie Martinez, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Lost Horizon/Head Shop, Curated by Billy Miller, Exile, Berlin, Germany
Don’t Jump Eyes Up, Curated by Julie Ryan, Galeire BIGGER, Vienna, Austria
SummerCamp, Exile, Berlin, Germany
Figurer le regard, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France
Blood Sweat Tears, Leyendecker Gallery, Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain

2009
Wild Feature 2, Organized by Brian Belott, Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France
Relics From the Other Realms, Curated by Athena Llewellyn Barat, Barat Foundation, Newark, NJ
What’s Bin Did and What’s Bin Hid, Curated by Ryan Steadman, 106 Green, New York, NY
Cutters: An Exhibition of International Collage, Curated by James Gallagher, Cinders, Brooklyn, NY
New York Minute, Curated by Kathy Grayson, MACRO Future, Rome, Italy
Katharina Ziemke, Brian Belott, Gilles Saussier. Galerie Zürcher, Paris, France
Apartment Show, Curated by Denise Kupferschmidt and Joshua Smith, Envoy Gallery, New York, NY
The Living and the Dead, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, NY
The Soho Art + Fashion Event at 7 For All Mankind, Curated by John Connelly, New York, NY
Wild Feature, Organized by Brian Belott, Zürcher Studio, New York, NY
Loving Overkill Via Satellite, Directed and choreographed by Larissa Velez, Dance Theater Workshop, New York, NY
No Sockpuppet, Curated by Michael J. G. Olsen, The Switch Building, New York, NY
Rare Editions: The Book As Art, c. by Susan Fleminger, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
Peanut Gallery, Curated by Joe Bradley, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY

2008
Book/Shelf, The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York, NY
I Won’t Grow Up, Cheim & Read, New York, NY
The Ice Cream Show, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Sunshine, Ritter/Zamet at Rental Gallery, New York, NY

2007
What Glue Do You Use?, Atelier Cardenas Bellanger, Paris, France
Bits and Pieces: The Collage Impulse, Lehman College Gallery, Bronx, NY
Cabinet of Curiosities, The Journal Gallery, New York, NY
Overbite/Underbite, Ritter/Zamet, London, England
Space is a Place, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art - PICA, Portland, OR

2006
Collage Party, Zieher Smith, New York, NY
CANADA, Counter Gallery, London, England
Frisky Flaming Hot, Galleri Christina Wilson, Copenhagen, Denmark
(CANA)RICO?, Galeria Comercial, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Available, Curated by Angela Dufresne and Monya Rowe, Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY
Searching for Love and Fire, David Castillo Modern & Contemporary Art, Miami, FL
Welcome Home, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden
Personal Assistance, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
You have to be almost gifted to do what I do, Alexander and Bonin, New York, NY

2005
Hanging by a Thread, The Moore Space, Miami, FL
WITH US AGAINST REALITY, OR AGAINST US!, Curated by Ida Ekblad and Anders Nordby, Oslo, Norway
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, LOYAL, Stockholm, Sweden
Put it in Your Mouth…, Rivington Arms, New York, NY
Precious Moments, Joymore, Brooklyn, NY
In Deep Water, Dinter Fine Art, New York, NY
New York’s Finest, CANADA, New York, NY

2004
Where do we come from? What are we? Where Are we going?, Champion Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
California Earthquakes, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, NY
Rowdy Remix, ATM Gallery, New York, NY
Majority Whip, White Box, New York, NY
Lost & Found, Dinter Fine Art, New York, NY
Word of Mouth, A Selection: Part I, Dinter Fine Art, New York, NY

2003
Art Band, Capitale, A Kenny Schacter/Rove Project, New York, NY
You Are My Sunshine/You Is My Sunshine, CANADA, New York, NY
Touching Color Through Fantasy, CANADA, New York, NY

2002
Black Out, Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA

2000
Full Serve, A Kenny Schacter Project, New York, NY

1997
OY, A Kenny Schacter Project, New York, NY

1995
Performance with Lucio Pozzi, New York, NY

Collections

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY