Jenny Holzer
(Born 1950)
Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio in 1950 and graduated from Ohio University in Athens in 1972. Holzer established herself in New York in 1977 and began developing a particular style rooted in language and its ability to challenge cultural, social, and artistic notions of our time. Holzer’s work has been created in a wide variety of mediums. She is widely known for her large-scale, public displays such as billboard advertisements, projections on buildings and other architectural structures, as well as illuminated electronic displays. Her controversial texts can also be found in small everyday objects such as posters and T-shirts. Holzer’s texts are usually grouped in series that address different topics that including pain, religion, politics, death and violence amongst others. Her text-based work is deeply influenced by Conceptual art but is imbued with a personal component. In many cases, this personal element is reflected by Holzer’s choice of medium, such as her texts inscribed in park benches, lead plaques or sarcophagi.
Jenny Holzer has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions of her work have been held in institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen/Basel and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2009, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2008. She has also participated in exhibitions in major institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum, Den Bosch in The Nederlands, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and her work is in multiple permanent installations in sites all over the world. Jenny Holzer was the first woman to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale in 1990 (she received the Golden Lion that year), and her work has been featured in multiple publications. Jenny Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.
Jenny Holzer was recently selected to create a permanent wall piece for the Louvre Abu Dhabi as part of the museum's contemporary art commissions program. She was also commissioned by the Steering Committee to create a permanent project for the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.
