Drew Klausner is a visual artist whose work draws on historical photographs to explore the ways we remember, reinterpret, and make meaning of the past. His creative life began with photography and later expanded into animation, where he spent twenty years making award-winning short films.
Klausner pursued graduate studies in art at U.C. Davis, taught animation at the California College of Arts & Crafts, and spent fourteen years as a senior digital artist at Industrial Light & Magic, contributing to the visual effects of numerous feature films.
His current work returns to photography, re-imagining historical images—particularly those from the 1930s—through a contemporary lens. By moving these photographs beyond their original documentary context, Klausner explores the shifting boundaries between history and memory, and the ways the social, economic, and political forces of the past continue to resonate in the present.
Selected Exhibitions
2026 Critics Choice, Ki Smith Gallery, New York, NY
Love, ART-ICON Gallery, Paris, France
Love and Romance, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR
Americana Reimagined, Petaluma Arts Center, Petaluma, CA
Mapping Time, Mercury20 Gallery, Oakland, CA
2025 Forgotten, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
Fig Tree, Ki Smith Gallery, New York, NY
Winter Group Show, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
2024 Holiday Group Show, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
West Coast Artists, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
Portrait: Self and Others, PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT
2023 Holiday Group Show, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
Revisiting the Family Album: Stories That Bind Us, Center For Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
Depictions, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA
2022 Gallery Henoch, Seattle Art Fair, Seattle, WA
2022 Gallery Group Show, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
2021 Nude Geographies, Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2020 The Meaning of Green, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA
2019 The Found Object, Praxis Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2019 Moving Pictures, L. Houston Contemporary, San Anselmo, CA
2018 Gang of Four, Downtown Arts Center, San Rafael, CA
2017 The Other Art Fair - Saatchi Art, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Into The Light, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA
2016 Group Show, Downtown Arts Center, San Rafael, CA
2015 Lost & Found, Lanoue Gallery, Boston, MA
2015 Untitled, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 Photo Independent, Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, CA
2014 Home, Gray Loft Gallery, Oakland, CA
1998 Art Show, Industrial Light & Magic, San Francisco, CA
1980 UC Davis Graduate Art Show, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Screening Showcases
American Film Festival Cracow Oberhausen
Ann Arbor Film Festival Exploratorium Pacific Film Archives
Annecy Lucca Poetry Film Festival
Bay Area Filmmaker's Exhibition Museum of Modern Art (NY) Pompidou Center
Cambridge (Great Britain) National Art Gallery (NZ) Sinking Creek
Cinemateque (SF) Netherlands Broadcasting T. Edison Black Maria
Grants
American Film Institute Pioneer Fund
California Arts Council San Francisco Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts Rocky Mountain Film Center
Collections
Academy Museum
Anthology Film Archives
Berkeley Art Museum
Cinémathèque Française
Delta Airlines
Deutsche Kinemathek
George Eastman Museum
Melissa E. Mullin
National Art Gallery (NZ)
New York Public Library
Princeton University
Peter Selz
Skirball Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
YIVO Institute
Eric Zener
Filmography
A Night In Tunisia Happy Anniversary
Happy Birthday It's Time To...
Testease Educated Feet
Jude Unknown
Here & There
Education
U.C. Davis (Graduate Fine Art Program – studied with Harvey Himelfarb & Wayne Thiebaud) 1979-80
York University (Toronto, Ontario) B.A. 1976
Art Institute of Chicago (Summer 1975)
San Francisco Art Institute (Summer 1974)
Lacoste School of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College (Summer 1972 – studied with Gjon Mili)
Work Experience
2008 - 2013 pixlfixl.com, Owner
2010 - Academy Art University, Adjunct Faculty
2009 - PolygonFX, Roto & Paint Artist
1994 - 2008 ILM, Roto & Paint Artist
1996 - 2002 ILM-CP, Lead Roto & Paint Artist
1993 - 1994 Colossal Pictures, Line Producer
1976 - 1993 Animated Productions, Producer/Director
1985 - 1988 San Quentin State Prison, Instructor of Animation
1981 - 1988 California College of Arts & Crafts, Lecturer in Film
1981 - 1983 Berkeley Adult School, Photography Instructor