Group Exhibitions
Photo Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago. Artists: Krebs, Judd, Francis, 69th American Exhibition, 1970.
1965 17th Area Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. “One Sun” by Krebs awarded first prize for sculpture.
1966 Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition Sculpture and Prints, Whitney Museum, New York, NY.
1967 Art from the Collection, Larry Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT.
1968 Whitney Museum of American Art Annual Exhibition Sculpture, Whitney Museum, New York, NY.
Art in Washington, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC.
Ten Years, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC.
Plasticos Washington, Latin American Art Foundation, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Hemisfair ’68, San Antonio, TX. Selected for the World’s Fair, 1968.
1969 Gilliam, Krebs, McGowin, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Curated by Walter Hopps. Krebs’ RA, the first ever solar and laser installation. RA, 61’ l x 31’ h x 26’ w, and Aleph2, photon structure, 11’ x 23’ x 23’.
A Plastic Presence, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY. Traveled to the Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, WI, 1970 and the San Francisco Museum of Art, CA, 1970. Curated by Tracy Atkinson and John Lloyd Taylor.
Fifth Annual Invitational of Drawings and Sculpture, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
Peninsula Art Invitational, Christopher Newport College, Newport News, VA.
Laser Light: A New Visual Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH. Organized by Dr. Leon Goldman. "...the first major U.S. laser art exhibition was organized by Dr. Leon Goldman at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1969. The exhibition, Laser Light: A New Visual Art found artists Rockne Krebs, Baron Kody and Mike Campbell constructing rooms with mirrors and smoke to make the laser beams visible."
1970 New Arts, U.S. Pavilion, Expo ’70, Osaka, Japan. The first ever laser beam switching system and prototype of the first laser light show, Krebs’ collaboration with Hewlett Packard Corporation. Eight American artists in the New Arts exhibition: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Tony Smith, Newton Harrison, Boyd Mefferd, Robert Whitman and Rockne Krebs. Curated by Maurice Tuchman.
69th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. Curated by A. James Speyer. Artists: Peter Alexander, Carl Andre, Rockne Krebs, Sam Francis, Alan Saret, Ron Cooper, Ron Davis, Donald Judd, DeWain Valentine, Sam Gilliam, Robert Morris, Robert Irwin, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Keith Sonnier, Fred Sandback, Larry Poons, Robert Whitman, Robert Smithson, Sol LeWitt, Craig Kauffman, Richard Van Buren, Larry Bell, and John McCracken.
Washington: Twenty Years, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD. Catalogue by Diana F. Johnson. “Krebs’ ‘Cut Flowers,’ a laser piece exhibited this year at the Baltimore Museum of Art, was named for the four students who died at Kent State.” Richard, Paul. Washington Post, 1970.
Ten Washington Artists: 1950-70: Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Howard Mehring, Sam Gilliam, Blaine Larson, Michael Clark, J. L. Knight, Rockne Krebs, The Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada.
Young Washington, D.C. Artists, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
1971 Art and Technology Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Curated by and catalogue/book by Maurice Tuchman with essays by Jane Livingston. Artists included: Larry Bell, John Chamberlain, Frederick Eversley, Robert Irwin, R. B. Kitaj, Rockne Krebs, Roy Lichtenstein, Boyd Mefford, Claes Oldenburg, Jules Olitski, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, Tony Smith, James Turrell, Andy Warhol, Robert Whitman, and many more.
Transparent and Translucent Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL. Exhibition traveled to the Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, FL.
Works for New Spaces, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
D.C., Madison Art Center, Madison, WI.
Sculpture and Shapes of the Last Decade, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT.
Washington Art, Brainerd Art Gallery, State University of Potsdam, NY; The University Art Gallery, State University of Albany, NY; The Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC. Curated by William Christenberry. Catalogue essay by Gunther Stamm.
Eight Young Washington Artists, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
25 Washington Artists, The Art Society of The International Monetary Fund, Twelfth Floor Gallery, Washington, DC. Curated by Nesta Dorrance.
Laser Dance I (Duet), a collaboration with Maida Withers, The Maida Withers Dance Construction Company and Rockne Krebs. Performance at the Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre, Washington, DC. “Probably the first performance of laser and dance for a live audience.” Maida Withers
1972 Art for McGovern, Knoll International, Washington, DC. “The man who turned laser beams into an artistic accomplishment will have a grim exhibit in the Art for McGovern. He plans to have it flash once every second for as many seconds as there have been lives lost in the Vietnam war…he will have to keep the beam flashing all night…”
1973 Woodward Foundation Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
New Work, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC.
the art of light and power, R O Products, Inc. Artists: Ed McGowin, Rockne Krebs, William Christenberry, and Fred Pitts. Sponsored by Raymond F. Pitman, President, R O Products and Inventor.
Art About George, The Studio Gallery of Bob Stark and Lucy Clark, Washington, DC.
Drawings and Small Works, Washington Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. In cooperation with, Henri, Jefferson Place Gallery, Protetch, and Pyramid galleries.
1974 Projected Images: Campus, Krebs, Sharits, Snow, Victoria, Whitman, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. Krebs’s Anonymous, the first ever laser scanning device with digital memory and The Lock, Home on the Range Part III, camera obscura projection installation.
Art Now '74 Exhibition, Washington, DC. Krebs’ Irish Light, urban-scale laser installation at the Kennedy Center across the Potomac River.
Group Exhibition, Pyramid Gallery, Washington, DC. Krebs: ‘For Sale’, Home on the Range, Part V.
Maida Withers Dance Concert, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Choreography by Maida Withers. Laser Structure by Rockne Krebs.
1975 Green Isis, urban-scale laser installation. Artpark exhibition, Lewiston, NY. 2009 Art Spaces Archives Project -oral history transcript - interview with David Katzive, Artpark Visual Arts Director, 1974-1976. "I liked it if artists did something that really connected to something that was inherently there. Rockne Krebs said he wanted to have his lasers come from the power plant. I thought, Oh, wow, great, even though it was on the Canadian side. They wouldn’t let him across the border because his lasers were seen as weapons. We had all kinds of issues there. Finally he got over there. [laughs]", David Katzive.
Sculpture: American Directions 1945-1975, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Curated by Walter Hopps. Exhibition traveled to: the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas TX. and the New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA.
Group Exhibition, James Yu Gallery, New York, NY. (laser installation)
1976 From the collection exhibition for the museum’s new Contemporary Galleries of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
1977 Group Exhibition, AFL-CIO Labor Studies Center, Silver Spring, MD.
William C. Seitz Memorial Collection, Exhibition of Works Presently Given and Promised, The Art Museum, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
Washington D.C. Prints, presented by Government Services Savings & Loan, Bethesda, MD.
1978 Project Drawings: Donald Judd, Rockne Krebs, Robert Morris, Three Kansas City Artists, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO.
Arcosanti Festival ’78: Music Festival and Art in the Environment, Kinetic Art, Sky Sculpture, and Environmental Light Show, Cosanti and Arcosanti, AZ. Festival Visual Artists: Otto Piene, Tal Streeter, Rockne Krebs, and Anders Holmquist.
Rockne Krebs and John Dickson, Fraser's Stable Gallery, Washington, DC.
The Cosmos Club Centennial Year Exhibition, Cosmos Club, Washington, DC.
The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
1980 Sculpture Today/Traditional and Non-Traditional, The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD. Group exhibition in conjunction with the 11th International Sculpture Conference. Curated by James Earl Reid.
Across The Nation: Fine Art for Federal Buildings, 1972-1979, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and traveled to the Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN, 1981.
Prints from the Walker Art Center's Permanent Collection, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA. "25 prints by 21 of America's most influential artists."
American Nude Drawings, Middendorf/Lane Gallery, Washington, DC.
Drawings of a Different Nature, Portland Center for the Visual Arts, Portland, OR. Curated by Lynda Benglis.
A Campus Collects: The University of South Carolina Art Gallery in the McKissick Museums, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.
1981 Installations: Stephen Antonakos, Sam Gilliam, Rockne Krebs, Middendorf/Lane Gallery, Washington, DC.
Instruction Drawings: The Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Curated by Roy Slade.
Washington Works on Paper: Recent Acquisitions, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
1982 Modern Sculpture from the Permanent Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
From D.C.: Ten Washington Sculptors, an independent exhibit for the Twelfth International Sculpture Conference in San Francisco, CA. Curated by Howard Fox.
Poetic Objects: An Exhibition of Imagist Sculpture Employing Found Objects, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC. Curated by Walter Hopps.
1983 “Director's Choice,” thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA.
1984 Picasso Play, Desire Caught By The Tail, Whitman Studio Theater, New York, NY. A collaboration installation that included interactive laser stage sets.
Alexandria Sculpture Festival, Alexandria Tourist Council, Alexandria, VA.
1985 The Maximal Implications of the Minimal Line, the Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Milton and Sally Avery Center for the Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
Translucid Sculpture, Washington Square, Washington, DC. Organized by the Public Art Trust, Washington, DC.
Public Art Process: An Exhibition of Drawings, Models and Photographs Metro-Dade Art in Public Places Collection 1973-1985, North Miami Museum and Art Center, Miami, FL and Metro-Dade Art in Public Places Trust. Artists: Carlos Alfonzo, Fernando Garcia, Robert Irwin, Rockne Krebs, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Purvis Young, and Elyn Zimmerman. Curated by César Trasobares and exhibition catalogue essay by César Trasobares.
1986 The Nesta Revival, Jefferson Place Gallery Show, Washington, DC.
My Heart Belongs to Pasadena, The Pasadena Art Alliance, Garland Fine Arts Center, Pasadena, CA.
Exhibition in honor of the 10th anniversary of Wilson Commons, designed by I.M. Pei and constructed in 1976 on the University of Rochester campus, Rochester, NY.
1987 Fringe Patterns, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, and traveled to the Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY, 1988. Fringe Patterns: Six Contemporary Works with Scientific or Metaphoric Ties to the 1887 Michelson-Morley Experiment. Curated by David Katzive. Artists: Alice Aycock, Larry Bell, Chris Burden, Rockne Krebs, Standish Lawder, and Frank Stella.
Rockne Krebs and friends, Artpark, 1975. Photo from Artpark: The Program in Visual Arts, Sharon Edelman (Editor),1976.
1988 Group Exhibition, Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables, FL.
The Sixties and Seventies, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA.
1994 Group exhibition, Chris Gardner’s Gallery, Washington, DC.
2001 Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Ceseri Collection and the Georgia Museum of Art, Wright State University Art Galleries, Dayton, OH, in cooperation with the Georgia Museum of Art. Toured by the Georgia Museum of Art to Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2002-2003 and Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (as Modern Drawings from the Ceseri Collection and the Georgia Museum of Art), Auburn University, Auburn, AL. in 2006.
The Universe: Contemporary Art and the Cosmos, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA. Artists: Carl Cheng, Dorthea Rockburne, Edward Ruscha, James Rosenquist, Kim Abeles, Linda Connor, Robert Rauschenberg, Rockne Krebs, and Vija Celmins.
2002 Paperwork, Pacifico Fine Art, New York, NY. Curated by James Pernotto.
Biennial Art Benefit, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA.
2004 Biennial Art Benefit, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA.
2006 Art on the Edge: Modern & Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE.
2010 Artpark: 1974-1984, UB Art Galleries - University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. Exhibition of the first ten years of Artpark’s Visual Artist Program in Lewiston, NY.
2011 Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art, Georgia Museum of Art, Boone and George-Ann Knox II Gallery, Athens, GA. Curated by Carol Nathanson.
Washington Color and Light, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
2013 Printed Matter, Inc., Sandy Relief Benefit Selling Exhibition, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Project Space, New York, NY. Exhibition from the personal collection of Robert Rauschenberg, donated by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
Washington Art Matters: 1940s-1980s, American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, DC.
Photo by John Aikins for The Third Wave by Benjamin Forgey, The Washington Star, October 12, 1969, Sunday Magazine.
2014 *Installation piece by artist George Terry. What’s Up: New Technologies in Art, Strathmore Mansion, Bethesda, MD. Curated by Harriet Lesser. “…a laser and video installation by George Terry honoring his mentor Rockne Krebs…” Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2014. Installation “Object… History… Light… Passage… Fog… Green… Black… Void” by George Terry. Terry was Rockne Krebs’s last artist assistant. George Terry’s artist statement on his piece.
2015 From the Archives: Art and Technology at LACMA, 1967– 1971, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.
Teaching Gallery: The Story of E. A. T., Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. Steven Duval, curator. Artists: Marcel Duchamp, Dr. Harold Eugene Edgerton, Rockne Krebs, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Notations: Minimalism in Motion, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
Hybrid practices in the arts, sciences, and technology from the 1960s to today, an international conference hosted by the Spencer Museum of Art at The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS. The Spencer Museum included in the conference exhibits their collection of art by Rockne Krebs.
2016 Drawing Inventory: Legacies for Iowa, Waldemar A. Schmidt Gallery, Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa. Host institution: University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art.
2017 Brosseau Center for Learning: International Sculpture Conference, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
2018 The Pearly Gates Collection, A Celebration of Walter Hopps, Yucca Valley Visual & Performing Arts Center, Yucca Valley, CA.
Brosseau Center for Learning: Experiencing and Exploring Art on the KU Campus, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
The Public Artworks of Rockne Krebs and Sam Gilliam, Washington Studio School, Washington, DC.
*Installation piece by Robin Bell. Sculpture Minus Object Remix by Robin Bell July 18th 2018 / Sculpture Minus Object by Rockne Krebs July 18th 1968. Washington Studio School, Washington, DC.
Photo Courtesy of The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Artists: Fred Eversley, De Wain Valentine and Rockne Krebs..Notations: Minimalism in Motion, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA., 2015
2019 Brosseau Center for Learning: Objects of Knowledge, Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.
2021 What’s Going Around: Lou Stovall & The Community Poster, 1967 – 1976, Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, DC. “This exhibition includes collaborations with the following artists: Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Walter Hopps, Rockne Krebs, Lloyd McNeill, Paul Reed, and Di Stovall.”
2022 Visual Natures: The Politics and Culture of Environmentalism in the 20th and 21st Century on view at maat – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal (March – September 2022). The exhibition maps key moments in art, technology and studies of environments. The Art and Technology experiments at LACMA (1967-1971) was featured, including photographs of Rockne Krebs’ installations from the LACMA Art and Technology Program archive.
Maida Withers and the Dance Construction Company’s exhibition and immersive installation, LEGACY: 50 YEARS Dance on the Edge, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. LEGACY presented a visual exploration of the history of an experimental dance company and included Laser Dance, 1985, a collaboration between Maida Withers, Bob Boilen, and Rockne Krebs. Vintage video footage of Laser Dance was restored and presented on large monitors.
Lou Stovall: The Museum Workshop, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC.
The Technological Sublime: Works by Three Artists. Beverly Fishman, Rockne Krebs, and Ruth Pastine, Pazo Fine Art, Kensington, MD.
2023 imaginary i, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art MMoCA, Madison, WI. November, 2023 – April 2024.
American Places: Featuring Selections from the Corcoran Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Curated by Caitlin Brague and Mollie Berger Salah. November 2023 – May 2024.
‘You can’t be it, unless you see it’ The Pernotto Collection, The Medici Museum of Art, Warren, OH.
2024 Works from the Collection, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. On view in the Annex on the first floor.
Some Light Reading (A Summer Exhibition), Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum, St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD. The artists and writers exhibited include Vija Celmins, Emily Dickinson, Rockne Krebs, Audre Lorde, Virgil Marti, Eileen Myles, Eileen Neff, Virginia Woolf, and Bahar Yürükoğlu.
Works from the Collection, The 50th Anniversary of the Art in Public Places program in Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Stephen P. Clark Government Center, Miami, FL.
Photo Courtesy of the Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum. Some Light Reading (A Summer Exhibition), Elizabeth Myers Mitchell Art Museum, St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD, 2024.
Photos by Judy Olausen. Projecting Images: Six Artists at Walker by D.R. Martin, Twin Cities Express, September, 1974.
imaginary i, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art MMoCA, Madison, WI, 2023. Photo by Beth Zimmerman Van Epern.
American Places: Featuring Selections from the Corcoran Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2023 - 2024.
Washington, DC, 1970. Juan Downey, Walter Hopps, Bob Elliott, Jr., and Dorothy Gilliam. Photo by Rockne Krebs.
Hemisfair ’68, the World’s Fair, 1968, San Antonio, TX. Clear, 1967, collection of the Witte Museum, San Antonio, TX.
Plasticos Washington, Latin American Art Foundation, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1968.
Fringe Patterns, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH, 1987.
Telegram from LACMA's curators to Rockne on the opening night of the Gilliam, Krebs, McGowin exhibition curated by Walter Hopps at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1969.
Sam Gilliam and Rockne Krebs at the Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC. 1969.
The Nesta Revival, Jefferson Place Gallery Reunion Show, Washington, DC, 1986. Photo © Carol Harrison