Lana Z Caplan

Photographer, film/video maker and interactive installation artist, Lana Z Caplan uses both emerging technologies and traditional media. In addition to single-channel films or videos in essay form, video art and performance pieces, she has made experimental documentaries, virtual reality experiences, public art video installations and published photography books.

Her recent photographic monograph, Oceano (for seven generations) published by Kehrer Verlag in 2023, contrasts the historic inhabitants of California’s Oceano Dunes – the Indigenous Chumash and a colony of depression-era artist and mystic squatters – with the current ATV riding community which is the source of a public health crisis in neighboring communities.

Caplan has served on the faculty of several colleges including Massachusetts College of Art and Design and University of California, San Diego. She is currently an Associate Professor of Photography and Video at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Massachusetts College of Art and Design, MFA in Photography
Boston University, BA in Art History, BS in Psychology, magna cum laude

Some highlights of her exhibition record include Museum of Contemporary Art (Tucson), Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City), Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, UVP/Lightwork @ Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse), Griffin Museum of Photography (Boston), Inside Out Art Museum (Beijing), National Gallery of Art (Puerto Rico), Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris, Edinburgh International Film Festival, CROSSROADS Festival (San Francisco), Microscope Gallery (Brooklyn), Antimatter [media art] (Victoria, BC), Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival (Scotland), Experiments in Cinema (Albuquerque).

Her work has been reviewed and featured in publications such as ARTnews, LA Times, Hyperallergic.com, Lenscratch.com and The Boston Globe and she has received several grants including from Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Film/Video Studio Program Fellowship at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, OH.