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Leighton Pierce


Leighton Pierce uses film, video, and sound to create experiences in transformative time. He creates multi-channel site-specific installations as well as single channel works that have been exhibited in major art museums and film festivals throughout the world including The Whitney Bienniale, Sundance, San Francisco, New York, Tribeca, Ann Arbor, and Rotterdam Film Festivals , the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Montreal Museé d’art contemporaine, and The Sheldon Art Museum. Retrospectives of his works have been presented at venues such as, The New Zealand Film Festival, Lincoln Center, The Cinémathèque française, Festival Nemo, and Pompidou Center in Paris, and at The Lisbon Biennale.  Pierce has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Creative Capital.


Pierce studied ceramics and music composition, particularly jazz and electronic music, before making films. It is a continuation of this early interest in music and the related process of constructing embodied emotional experiences in time that continue to guide his work. Pierce executes all aspects of his works himself including the conception, cinematography, editing, and of course, the sound design and composition.


Pierce was head of the Program in Film and Video Production at the University of Iowa from 2001-2011 where he also taught classes in all aspects of film and video making with a special emphasis on the conceptual and practical development of sound and image relationships in film, video, and installation.  From 2011 Pierce was at Pratt Institute for 3 years, first  as Chair of the Department of FilmVideo and then as Acting Dean of the School of Art and Design.


In 2014 Pierce was appointed Dean of the School of Film/Video at California Institute of the Arts.


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