John Waters
John Waters: Pope of Trash
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles
August 17, 2023–August 4, 2024

John Waters: Pope of Trash is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the artist’s contributions to cinema. The exhibition delves into his filmmaking process, key themes, and unmatched style. Works on view include costumes, props, handwritten scripts, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, film clips, and more, revealing the nuances of independent filmmaking and the ways in which Waters’s movies have redefined the possibilities of independent cinema.

John Waters
Hollywood's Greatest Hits
February 16–May 8, 2021
Los Angeles

Hollywood’s Greatest Hits features a selection of works, most of which have never been seen before in LA, that shed light on John Waters' decades-long, wide-ranging art practice, and in particular, his humorous and irreverent takes on the movie industry.

John Waters
Beverly Hills John
July 1–August 15, 2015
London

John Waters' first ever exhibition in London, Beverly Hills John, is a fresh set of affectionate barbs about the movie biz. While he hasn’t lost his mordant wit or sense of mischief, Beverly Hills John finds Waters in a more reflective mood, asking the question: ‘Since celebrity is the only obscenity left in the art world, where do I fit in?’ He also hopes to resolve issues about childhood fame, false glamour, the horrors of nouveau-riche excess, his ongoing sexual attractions and the possible risk of ‘careericide’ with dignity.

John Waters
Bad Director's Chair
February 7–March 8, 2014
Berlin

One of the most celebrated directors in American independent cinema, John Waters is at his vibrant best when flaunting Hollywood’s rules or reveling in bad taste. The director of Pink Flamingos (1972) and Pecker (1998) brings the same wit and audacity to the art gallery. Perched upon his Bad Director’s Chair, Waters has cast his eye over some unlikely corners of the film business, transforming his observations of all the glamour and heartbreak of Hollywood into photographic essays and narrative sculptures that are both ridiculously honest and brutally humorous. Waters becomes the self-appointed press agent for his newly conceived “little movies” who would surely be fired the first day of a shoot by the furious producers.