John Baldessari was born in National City, California. He attended San Diego State University and did post-graduate work at Otis Art Institute, Chouinard Art Institute and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA from 1970 - 1988 and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1996 - 2007.

Baldessari’s artwork has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions and in over 1000 group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. His projects include artist books, videos, films, billboards and public works. His awards and honors include memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Americans for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, the BACA International 2008, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, awarded by La Biennale di Venezia in 2009. He has received honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland, San Diego State University, and Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design.

Recent projects include exhibitions in New York, Europe, and Los Angeles; a curatorial project at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C.; installations at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany, and at Sprüth Magers London; and a print retrospective at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, CA (2009). John Baldessari: A Catalogue Raisonné of Prints and Multiples 1971-2007 was published in December 2009 by Hudson Hills Press.

Upcoming projects include an exhibition with the Fondazione Prada in Milan, Italy; new work with Kaldor Public Public Art Projects in Sidney, Australia; and the continuation of “John Baldessari: Pure Beauty,” a retrospective that began at the Tate Modern in London in 2009, traveled to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (February – April, 2010), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (June – September 2010), and will continue at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 2010 – January 2011).

[Source: John Baldessari's Website, April 13, 2011]