Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer. Photo: Nanda Lanfranco

 

Jenny Holzer (*1950) has been probing the aesthetic and political intersection of language, installation, and painting since the late 1970s. Holzer displays her own and other texts in a variety of media, including LED tickers and light projections in public spaces, confronting current events and topics such as war and sexual violence in a way that defies didacticism and challenges the viewer’s passivity. The New York-based artist has been with the gallery since 1986, first represented by Galerie Monika Sprüth, then by Sprüth Magers.

 

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Holzer’s dialogue with the kinds of language-based conceptual art exemplified by Lawrence Weiner and Joseph Kosuth is particularly evident in early works such as Truisms (1977–1979) and Inflammatory Essays (1979–1982). For these works, the artist printed enigmatic epigrams on posters and secretly affixed them to the walls of buildings and subway stations in New York. Directed at anonymous passersby, the texts were often based on philosophical readings and struck a clear contrast to the structuralist and analytical language models favored by her predecessors. Viewers were often unable to discern which messages were ironic and which were sincere; nor could they make out the political position underpinning those idiosyncratic, sometimes contradictory statements. They could only sort these texts out for themselves, reflecting on what they had read and allowing their own, personal feelings to take hold.

Holzer’s text works have appeared on a multitude of materials—from T-shirts, caps and golf balls to programmed light-emitting diodes, screen prints, oil paintings, sarcophagi and benches made of marble, granite and labradorite. Her messages could be seen on trucks driving through cities like Washington D.C., racecars and a small plane. She has designed expansive, robotic LED text sculptures that respond to viewers’ movements in space and projected texts onto some of the world’s most iconic buildings and landscapes, including the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, the Louvre in Paris, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the New York Public Library, the Arno in Florence and the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.

Holzer continually changes and updates both her media and her sources. The artist’s texts range from distillations of novels by Annie Dillard and Elfriede Jelinek to passages from Michel de Montaigne’s Essays and Wisława Szymborska’s poetry. Another, more recent point of focus has been her work with classified U.S. government documents, which often report on torture and military interventions in euphemistic jargon and only reach the public after being censored and blacked-out, sometimes to the point of illegibility.

Holzer’s works stem from a desire to make art for a wider audience. She often puts media traditionally reserved for advertising in public spaces at art’s disposal. Her pieces build on the sensual vocabulary of Mark Rothko, the minimalism of Dan Flavin and Donald Judd, and the socio-political theories of the Russian Constructivists, among others. Holzer creates aesthetic experiences between meditation and incantation, denunciation and assurance. In doing so, she succeeds in transforming nothing less than the traditional process of reading, inviting viewers to become conscious of its associative, intellectual and emotional consequences. She exposes entrenched assumptions and behavioral patterns in our shared understanding, penetrating deep into the collective unease of our times.

 

Jenny Holzer: SOFTER
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, September 28–December 31, 2017
© 2017 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

 

Works
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Truisms 1977–79, 1998

Jenny Holzer
Truisms 1977–79, 1998
Horizontal LED sign with red diodes and black housing
15.2 × 135.8 × 11.4 cm
6 × 53 1/2 × 44 7/8 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Splayed 0003242, 2015–20

Jenny Holzer
Splayed 0003242, 2015–20
24k gold, Caplain gold and champagne gold leaf and oil on linen
147.3 × 111.8 × 3.8 cm
58 × 44 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019
Text: Truisms (1977–79)
Oak Stone bench
43.2 × 121.9 × 50.8 cm
17 × 48 × 20 inches

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Survival, 1989

Jenny Holzer
Survival, 1989
Text: Survival (1980–82)
Horizontal LED sign with red diodes and black housing
13.3 × 276.9 × 7.6 cm
5 1/4 × 109 × 3 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Text: Selections from Truisms (1977–79) and Survival (1980–82)
10 double-sided, semicircular electronic LED signs: red and blue diodes on front, blue and white diodes on back; Housing: stainless steel
13.3 × 230.3 × 15 cm
5 1/4 × 90 3/4 × 6 inches

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Phase III - Operations Purple, 2007

Jenny Holzer
Phase III – Operations Purple, 2007
Text: U.S. government document
Oil on linen
200.7 × 259.7 × 3.8 cm
79 × 102 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017
Text: Poetry by Anna Świrszczyńska
7 curved Nero Portoro marble benches
Dimensions variable

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Survival Series: Protect me from what I want..., 1984

Jenny Holzer
Survival Series: Protect me from what I want…, 1984
Text on cast aluminum plaque
15.2 × 24.1 cm
6 × 9 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Text: Selection from Truisms (1977–79) and Survival (1983–85), Erlauf (1995) and Arno (1996)
Stone wall engraved with text
Permanent installation, Wanås Foundation, Knsilinge, Sweden
ca. 187100 cm
73661 3/8 inches approximately

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Right Hand DOD-044403, 2007

Jenny Holzer
Right Hand DOD-044403, 2007
Oil on linen
147.3 × 111.8 × 3.8 cm
58 × 44 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005
Text: Mother and Child (1990)
LED sign with blue diodes, permanent installation
1210.2 × 13.7 × 13.7 cm
476 1/2 × 5 3/8 × 5 3/8 inches

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Living Series: Enamel Signs, 1981

Jenny Holzer
Living Series: Enamel Signs, 1981
Text: Living (1980–82)
Installation view, hand-painted enamel on metal sign: black on white or red on white
Each 53.3 × 58.4 cm
Each 21 × 23 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Survival: UNEX Sign, 1983

Jenny Holzer
Survival: UNEX Sign, 1983
Text: Survival (1983–85)
Horizontal LED sign: red, green, and blue diodes; black powder-coated aluminum housing
77.5 × 288.3 × 30.5 cm
30 1/2 × 113 1/2 × 12 inches

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes..., 1989

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes…, 1989
Text: Living (1980–82)
Carbon on tracing paper
45.7 × 91.4 cm
18 × 36 inches

More views
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine..., 2019

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine…, 2019
Text: Truisms (1977–79)
Azul do Mar quartzite footstool
43.2 × 63.5 × 40.6 cm
17 × 25 × 16 inches

More views
Details
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Truisms 1977–79, 1998
Horizontal LED sign with red diodes and black housing
15.2 × 135.8 × 11.4 cm
6 × 53 1/2 × 44 7/8 inches

Jenny Holzer
Truisms 1977–79, 1998
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Splayed 0003242, 2015–20
24k gold, Caplain gold and champagne gold leaf and oil on linen
147.3 × 111.8 × 3.8 cm
58 × 44 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Splayed 0003242, 2015–20
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019
Text: Truisms (1977–79)
Oak Stone bench
43.2 × 121.9 × 50.8 cm
17 × 48 × 20 inches

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019

Jenny Holzer
Humor is a release, 2019
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Survival, 1989
Text: Survival (1980–82)
Horizontal LED sign with red diodes and black housing
13.3 × 276.9 × 7.6 cm
5 1/4 × 109 × 3 inches

Jenny Holzer
Survival, 1989
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Text: Selections from Truisms (1977–79) and Survival (1980–82)
10 double-sided, semicircular electronic LED signs: red and blue diodes on front, blue and white diodes on back; Housing: stainless steel
13.3 × 230.3 × 15 cm
5 1/4 × 90 3/4 × 6 inches

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007

Jenny Holzer
TORSO, 2007
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Phase III – Operations Purple, 2007
Text: U.S. government document
Oil on linen
200.7 × 259.7 × 3.8 cm
79 × 102 1/4 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Phase III - Operations Purple, 2007
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017
Text: Poetry by Anna Świrszczyńska
7 curved Nero Portoro marble benches
Dimensions variable

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, Text: Poetry by Anna Świrszczyńska, 2017
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS, 2017 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
SUCH WORDS
Text: Poetry by Anna Świrszczyńska
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Survival Series: Protect me from what I want…, 1984
Text on cast aluminum plaque
15.2 × 24.1 cm
6 × 9 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Survival Series: Protect me from what I want..., 1984
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Text: Selection from Truisms (1977–79) and Survival (1983–85), Erlauf (1995) and Arno (1996)
Stone wall engraved with text
Permanent installation, Wanås Foundation, Knsilinge, Sweden
ca. 187100 cm
73661 3/8 inches approximately

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Wanås Wall, 2002
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Right Hand DOD-044403, 2007
Oil on linen
147.3 × 111.8 × 3.8 cm
58 × 44 × 1 1/2 inches

Jenny Holzer
Right Hand DOD-044403, 2007
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005
Text: Mother and Child (1990)
LED sign with blue diodes, permanent installation
1210.2 × 13.7 × 13.7 cm
476 1/2 × 5 3/8 × 5 3/8 inches

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, Text: Mother and Child (1990), 2005
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, 2005

Jenny Holzer
For Paula Modersohn-Becker, Text: Mother and Child (1990), 2005
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Living Series: Enamel Signs, 1981
Text: Living (1980–82)
Installation view, hand-painted enamel on metal sign: black on white or red on white
Each 53.3 × 58.4 cm
Each 21 × 23 inches

Jenny Holzer
Living Series: Enamel Signs, 1981
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Survival: UNEX Sign, 1983
Text: Survival (1983–85)
Horizontal LED sign: red, green, and blue diodes; black powder-coated aluminum housing
77.5 × 288.3 × 30.5 cm
30 1/2 × 113 1/2 × 12 inches

Jenny Holzer
Survival: UNEX Sign, 1983
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes…, 1989
Text: Living (1980–82)
Carbon on tracing paper
45.7 × 91.4 cm
18 × 36 inches

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes..., 1989
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes…, 1989 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes..., Text: Living (1980-1982), 1989
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes…, 1989 (detail)

Jenny Holzer
Hands-on socialization promotes..., Text: Living (1980-1982), 1989
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine…, 2019
Text: Truisms (1977–79)
Azul do Mar quartzite footstool
43.2 × 63.5 × 40.6 cm
17 × 25 × 16 inches

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine..., 2019
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine…, 2019

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine..., Text: Truisms (1977-79), 2019
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine…, 2019

Jenny Holzer
Selection from Truisms: Your actions determine..., 2015
Details
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Current and Upcoming
Jenny Holzer
The House of Dust, installation view, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Etienne. Photo: Aurélien Mole / MAMC+ Saint-Etienne Métropole.

The House of Dust
Group Exhibition
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMC), Saint-Etienne
Through April 10, 2023

Echoing its programming, attentive to women artists, the MAMC+ proposes a new hanging from its collections that strives to improve the visibility of women’s creation, which represents only about 4% of its 20 000 artworks.

Link

The Art of Food
Group Exhibition
Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City
Through May 22, 2023

The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation features more than 100 artworks by 36 well-known contemporary artists—including John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer, Ed Ruscha and Analia Saban—highlighting the subject of food. Included are artworks in media such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture and ceramics. Whether celebratory or critical, each work presents a different, nuanced perspective on the central place food holds in everyday life.

Link
Jenny Holzer
The Art of Food, installation view, Oklahoma Contemporary, February 2–May 22, 2023.
Courtesy of Oklahoma Gazette. Photo: Berlin Green
Jenny Holzer
Forty-second Street Art Project, installation view, Times Square, New York, 1973 (detail)
© Jenny Holzer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022. Photo: Stephen Sweet

Jenny Holzer
Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf
Through August 6, 2023

Starting March 11, 2023, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen will present a sweeping exhibition of the internationally celebrated American artist Jenny Holzer (*1950). Since the 1970s, Holzer has been renowned for her thought-provoking use of text in various media and her pioneering adaptation of new technologies.

Holzer’s Düsseldorf exhibition, spanning K21’s Bel Etage and temporary exhibition galleries, will range from posters to paintings and stone-works, touching on subjects such as war, absurdity, and populism. In keeping with Holzer’s deeply democratic approach and artistic practice, her works challenge viewers to grapple with conflicting perspectives and find their own empathic, open minded positions in complex debates. This makes the exhibition a public forum for discussions of current global challenges.

Link

Language in Times of Miscommunication
Group Exhibition
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Through August 27, 2023

Language in Times of Miscommunication presents artworks by nineteen American artists that incorporate various forms of language (poetry, speculative fiction, and slang), modes of communication (propaganda, protest, social media, and advertising), and research (archives, political documents, and the news). The assembled works form a timely exchange about the slippery relationship between opinion, fact, and fiction in order to address the socio-political ramifications of divisive language and alternative narratives that have unraveled society since 2016—a year that marked a shift in recognizing the fallibility of communication in the United States. The exhibition and artworks do not ignore the polemical and rarely posit either fact or truth; rather they attempt to incite a critical and expansive discourse about the complexities of social reality in times of rampant miscommunication.

Link
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer, happening with Russia, 2020
© Jenny Holzer
Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers
Jenny Holzer

Mies in Mind
John Bock, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Jenny Holzer, Kraftwerk, Reinhard Mucha, Otto Piene, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Scheibitz
August 20–September 4, 2021
Berlin

As part of the exhibition parcours Mies In Mind, initiated by INDEX Berlin and taking place on the occasion of the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Sprüth Magers is showcasing works by John Bock, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Jenny Holzer, Reinhard Mucha, Otto Piene, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Scheibitz in a group exhibition that pays tribute to the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his famous building.

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Jenny Holzer
Trucks and Truisms
June 12–July 12, 2020

From her Truisms (1977–79) to IT IS GUNS (2018–ongoing), Jenny Holzer has never shied away from bringing her art to the streets. This exhibition will offer a survey of some of Holzer's important public projects and interventions.

Jenny Holzer

Eau de Cologne
Rosemarie Trockel, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jenny Holzer / Lady Pink
June 28–August 20, 2016
Los Angeles

The group show Eau de Cologne at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles features work from the late 1970s to 2016 by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman and Rosemarie Trockel. The exhibition at Sprüth Magers’ recently-opened Los Angeles gallery is a follow–up to its predecessor in Berlin last year. It sheds light on key topics in these artists’ works, but also the specific history of the gallery and its connection to these important female figures of an art that subtly addresses women’s roles in very different ways.

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Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Endgame
April 27–June 16, 2012
Berlin

Entitled Endgame, the exhibition includes a series of paintings marking the artist’s return to the medium after more than thirty years. Holzer searches for ways to make narrative a part of visual objects, employing an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. While looking for subject matter for electronics and projections, the artist located a number of redacted, declassified government documents including policy memos, autopsy reports, and statements by American administration officials, soldiers, detainees, and others, generated during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Selections: Morris, Trockel, Holzer & Pink
Jenny Holzer / Lady Pink, Robert Morris, Rosemarie Trockel
April 8–May 28, 2011
Berlin

Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Detained
January 31–March 15, 2008
London

Beginning with her 2004 exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, Holzer has made the study of declassified US government documents the content for her context-based practice. Incorporating memos, sworn statements, emails, directives, judgments, and other government materials regarding the situation in the Middle East into paintings, large scale light projections, and electronic signs, Holzer has harnessed a variety of approaches to make sensate the accounting of war and torture.

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Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Highly Sensitive
June 5–September 1, 2007
Cologne

The works shown in the exhibition Highly Sensitive continue a theme that Jenny Holzer began with a work for the magazine Wired in 2004 and continued in her solo exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz, Truth before Power, in which she made the balance between transparency and security within a democratic government her theme. Her most recent work is based on the political landscape of the USA after 9/11 and the debate about covert investigations, mistreatment of prisoners of war and war tragedies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, which Jenny Holzer reveals through written instructions, emails and testimonies of decision-makers, soldiers and prisoners. In her Redaction Paintings Holzer shows documents from government and military circles that have been published in the course of the Freedom of Information Act.

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Jenny Holzer
Secret
March 29–May 19, 2007
Munich

In her latest works, Jenny Holzer negotiates the political landscape after 9/11 and traces the debate over covert operations, prisoner abuse, and war tragedies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay through the directives, emails, and testimonies of policy makers, soldiers, and prisoners. In her Redaction Paintings Holzer shows sensitive governmental and military documents, released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Not originally intended for the public, many of these documents were heavily redacted by the United States Government prior to their release. Without subscribing to any particular ideology, Holzer presents text as material in her paintings, evoking a certain curiosity about the actual meaning of the words on the page, which, in their original context, are typically overlooked due to the continuous flow of information we encounter daily.

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Mondi Possibili
Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Claus Föttinger, Thomas Grünfeld, Jenny Holzer, Stefan Kern, Joseph Kosuth, Louise Lawler, Michail Pirgelis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West
January 17–April 7, 2006
Cologne

As part of the PASSAGEN, the supporting programme of the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, at the beginning of the year Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present a new edition of the exhibition “Mondi Possibili”. The works on display deal with the subject of furniture from a variety of angles: as citation, as homage, as adaptation, or as copy. Others are usable objects that hardly differ from their reference objects in the domain of design or furniture.

Jenny Holzer / Lady Pink
Hot Pink
April 29–July 16, 2005
Cologne

The exhibition Hot Pink shows six pictures, which were created in collaboration between Jenny Holzer and the graffity artist Lady Pink. During the early 1980s, when Holzer paved the streets of New York City with her posters and stickers, Lady Pink and other sprayers, such as A-One and Lee, sprayed public buildings and subways.

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
February 3–April 2, 2005
London

Sprüth Magers Lee is proud to present new work by American artist Jenny Holzer.

Over the past thirty years, Holzer has punctuated the art world with an exploration of text that seeks to highlight and challenge language’s many forms of presentation, interpretation and perceived authority. Holzer’s numerous installations, in both traditional exhibition contexts and within public spaces demonstrate the range of her chosen mediums. The artist’s deft execution of such manoeuvres allows her to continually locate her audience within the changing interior of the texts.

Jenny Holzer / Lady Pink
Hot Pink
November 11–December 31, 2004
Munich

HOT PINK features six paintings created in collaboration by Jenny Holzer and Lady Pink. During the early 1980s, while Holzer was plastering the streets of New York City with her posters and stickers, Lady Pink and other graffiti writers, such as A-One and Lee were spray-painting trains and buildings throughout the city. Five of the works in the show date to this period, a time when Holzer would invite Lady Pink to her Lower East Side loft to work together on canvases. Lady Pink created the images, for which Holzer devised the text, sometimes drawing lines, such as SAVOR KINDNESS BECAUSE CRUELTY IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE LATER or YOU ARE TRAPPED ON THE EARTH SO YOU WILL EXPLODE from her Survival series.

The classic motif of art history appears here in a contemporary context. As fluid as the boundaries between art and the public were in Holzer's works back then, this aspect is still current and a central point for the artist. The date of origin of most of these works on display does not detract from their topicality, on the contrary, their content is more relevant today than ever.

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Shadow and Light
Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Olafur Eliasson, Martin Fengel, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Dan Flavin, Sylvie Fleury, Gilbert & George, Dan Graham, Thomas Grünfeld, Andreas Gursky, Stefan Hirsig, Jenny Holzer, Axel Kasseböhmer, Stefan Kern, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Louise Lawler, Anne Loch, Paul Morrison, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Bruce Nauman, Manuel Ocampo, Nam June Paik, Hirsch Perlman, Lari Pittman, Barbara Probst, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Robert Ryman, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Paul Sietsema, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Christopher Wool, Martin Wöhrl, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
July 26–August 31, 2003
Salzburg

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers will open a temporary space in Salzburg together with their London partner Simon Lee for the duration of the Salzburg Festival. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that the galleries are traditionally closed in August and that exhibition operations are shut down, but at the same time cultural life is at its peak in Salzburg, not far from our Munich location. It makes sense to contribute something to the cultural climate with a precisely formulated group exhibition and at the same time to reach a sophisticated international audience.

20th Anniversary Show
John Baldessari, Alighiero Boetti, George Condo, Walter Dahn, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Andreas Gursky, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Axel Kasseböhmer, Karen Kilimnik, Astrid Klein, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Nina Pohl, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Andrea Zittel, Philip-Lorca diCorcia
April 25–October 18, 2003
Cologne

In 1983, Monika Sprüth opened her Cologne based gallery with a solo show by Andreas Schulze. Starting from the idea to establish a forum for young and unknown artists, the central focus of the gallery concept was developed in the discourse of the 80s. The gallery program was completed by recourses to artistic attitudes of the last 40 years. This research, motivated by reflection on contemporary art history, was more and more realized in cooperation with Philomene Magers who directed her Bonn gallery since 1992. After a few years of loose cooperation, Monika Sprüth Gallery and Philomene Magers Gallery aligned with each other after, and together the Monika Sprüth / Philomene Magers Gallery opened up in Munich in 1999.

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
OH
March 14–May 4, 2002
Munich

Jenny Holzer
Blue
September 4–October 31, 1998
Cologne

Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer
Lustmord
February 8–April 29, 1995
Cologne

Jenny Holzer

Künstler der Galerie
Peter Fischli  David Weiss, Rosemarie Trockel, George Condo, Axel Kasseböhmer, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Anne Loch, Andreas Schulze, Thomas Wachweger, Milan Kunc, Ina Barfuss
June 13–July 15, 1987
Cologne

Press

Jenny Holzer
Wallpaper, interviewed by Marina Cashdan, October 2019

‘I Can See Empty Space as a Three-Dimensional Solid’: Artist Jenny Holzer on How She Fuses Architecture With Language
Artnet News, interview by Randy Kennedy, June 3,  2019

“I want people to attend to the content”– an interview with Jenny Holzer
Apollo, Interview by Gabrielle Schwarz, April 2019

How Jenny Holzer taught the Instagram generation to speak in universal truths 
Sleek, review by Kathryn O’Regan, March 25, 2019

Issues & Commentary: Truisms and Lies
Art in America, review by Leah Pires, October 2018

Women and Power: Jenny Holzer Made Good Things Out of Horror
New York Magazine, article by Amanda Fortini, October 2018

Zu Gast Jenny Holzer
Die Dame, Fall/Winter 2018

Jenny Holzer: Words of Conflict
The Art Newspaper Review, article by Louisa Buck, August 29, 2017

 

Biography

Jenny Holzer (*1950, Gallipolis, OH) lives and works in New York. An exhibition co-curated by Holzer on the work of Louise Bourgeois was recently on view at Kunsthalle Basel (2022). Selected solo shows include Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2019), and Tate Modern, London (2019), Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (2017–present), Blenheim Art Foundation, Woodstock (2017), Lune Rouge and Art Projects Ibiza (2016), Museo Correr, Venice (2015), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011, 2001), DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, Montreal and The Baltic, Gateshead (both 2010), Foundation Beyeler, Basel and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (both 2009), The Barbican Centre, London (2006), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1991), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2000), ICA, London (1988), as well as Dia Art Foundation, New York and Guggenheim Museum, New York (both 1989). Group shows include Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (both 2020), MoMA PS1, New York (2019), Whitney Museum, New York (2015, 1996, 1989, 1988, 1983), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014), Hayward Gallery, London (2013, 1992), Malba, Buenos Aires (2012), Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2011), The Barbican Centre, London (2008), MoMA, New York (2008, 2005, 1997, 1996, 1992, 1988), Venice Biennale, Venice (2005), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2005, 2000, 1995, 1990, 1988), and documenta 8, Kassel (1987).

https://projects.jennyholzer.com

Education
1977 Independent Study Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1976–77 Master of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
1972 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Ohio University, Athens
1970–71 University of Chicago, Chicago
1968–70 Duke University, Durham, NC
Awards, Grants and Fellowships
2019 Jesse L. Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts, The University of Chicago
2018 Doctorate of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute, New York American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
2017 International Medal of Arts, U.S. Department of State, Washington
2016 Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministère de la Culture
2016 Honorary Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2014 Asher B. Durand Award, Brooklyn Museum, New York
2011 Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award, American for the Arts, Washington DC and New York
2011 Amercian Academy of Arts and Science, Cambridge, MA
2011 Medal of Distinction, Barnard College, New York
2010 LA MOCA Award for Distinguished Women in the Arts, Los Angeles
2009 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art, Smith College, Northampton, MA
2009 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
2006 Urban Visionaries Award, The Cooper Union, New York
2005 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, New School University, New York
2004 Resident in Visual Arts, American Academy, Rome
2004 Public Art Network Award, Americans for the Arts, Washington DC and New York
2003 Resident in Visual Arts, American Academy in Rome
2003 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
2002 Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
2002 Kaiserring, Goslar
2000 Berlin Prize Fellowship, The Amercian Academy, Berlin
2000 Honorary Doctorate of Arts, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
1996 Crystal Award, World Economic Forum, Geneva
1994 Honorary Doctorate of Arts, University of Ohio, Athens
1994 Skowhegan Medal for Installation, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York
1993 Art Director's Club of Europe, Gold Medal for Title, Gold Medal for Design for Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Edition No. 46, 1993, LUSTMORD
1990 Leone d'Oro, grand prize for pavilion XLIV Biennale di Venezia, Venice