Jenny Holzer Biography and Artwork

born Gallipolis, OH (USA) 1950

Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University (in Athens, OH), Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking, but after moving to New York City in 1977, she began working with text as art.

The main focus of Jenny Holzer's work is on the use of ideas in public space. Street posters are her favorite medium, but she also makes use of a variety of other media, including LED signs, plaques, benches, stickers, T-shirts and the World Wide Web.

Select Timeline

Select Exhibitions

• 2007 - Galeria Javier Lopez, Madrid
• 2006 - For 7 World Trade (with James Carpenter), Silverstein Properties, New York
• 2006 - Archive, Cheim & Read, New York
• 2006 - Jenny Holzer: For London, Barbican Art Gallery, London
• 2006 - Jenny Holzer. XXI, Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, Wien/Vienna, Austria
• 2006 - "The Downtown Show," Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
• 2006 - "Surprise Surprise," ICA London
• 2006 - "Faster! Bigger! Better!" ZKM, Karlsruhe.
• 2006 - "A Brighter Day," James Cohan Gallery, New York
• 2005 - "Jenny Holzer. Lady Pink," Galerie Monika Spruth Philomene Magers, Koln/Cologne, Germany
• 2005 - "Superstars," Kunsthalle Wien/BA-CA Kunstforum, Wien
• 2005 - "Lichtkunst aus Kunstlicht," ZKM, Karlsruhe
• 2004 - Monika Spruth Philomene Magers, Munich, Hot Pink
• 2004 - Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, Jenny Holzer with poetry by Henri Cole
• 2004 - Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz Austria, TRUTH BEFORE POWER
• 2001 - Cheim & Read, New York, Jenny Holzer
• 2001 - Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpetriere, Festival d'Automne a Paris, Paris
• 2001 - Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Jenny Holzer
• 2001 - Galeria Luisa Strina, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jenny Holzer
• 2000 - Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires, Jenny Holzer
• 1999 - Accompanied by xenon projections throughout Rio de Janeiro
• 1999 - Galerie Rudiger Schottle, Munich, Jenny Holzer: The Living Series, Apr. 20-May 29, 1999.
• 1999 - Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Jenny Holzer: Blue, Apr. 16-May 29, 1999
• 1998 - Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, Jenny Holzer: Blue, Sept. 12-Oct. 31, 1998.
• 1998 - Monika Spruth Galerie, Cologne, Jenny Holzer: Blue, Sept. 4-Oct. 31, 1998.

Select Artwork

• Truisms (1977-) is probably her most well-known work. Holzer has compiled a series of statements and aphorisms ("truisms") and has publicised them in a variety of ways: listed on street posters, in telephone booths, and even, in 1982, on one of Times Square's gigantic LED billboards, or in 1999 on a BMW V12 LMR race car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans
• Inflammatory Essays (1978-79), in which she brought texts influenced by Trotsky, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman onto the streets
• Living Series (early 1980s), using more monumental media such as bronze plaques and billboards
• Survival Series (1983-1985), with more militant aphorisms, including "Men Don't Protect You Anymore," a phrase reproduced on condoms and street billboards alike
• Under a Rock
• Lament
• Child Text, a piece on motherhood for the 1990 Venice Biennale
• Green Table (1992), a large granite picnic table with inscriptions, part of the Stuart Collection of public art on the campus of the University of California, San Diego
• Please Change Beliefs (1995), created for the internet art gallery adaweb.
• For the City (2005), nighttime projections of declassified government documents on the exterior of New York University's Bobst Library, and poetry on the exteriors of Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library in Manhattan

Quotes (Truisms)

• "A little knowledge can go a long way"
• "A man can't know what it is to be a mother"
• "A positive attitude means all the difference in the world"
• "Men are not monogamous by nature"
• "Enjoy yourself because you can't change anything anyway"
• "Freedom is a luxury not a necessity"
• "At times your unconsciousness is truer than your conscious mind"
• "Change is valuable when the oppressed become tyrants"

Publications

• Jenny Holzer - by Diane Waldman, Jenny Holzer, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (July 2003)
• Laments - by Jenny Holzer, Dia Art Foundation (June 1990)
• Jenny Holzer: Truth Before Power - by Jenny Holzer, Eckhard Schneider, Maurice Berger, Kunsthaus Bregenz (November 30, 2004)
• Jenny Holzer: Redaction Paintings - by Robert Storr, Jenny Holzer, Cheim & Read (February 1, 2007)
• Eating Through Living - by Jenny Holzer, Peter Nadin, Tanam Press (October 1981)

Quick Facts

• Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist.
• The main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space.
• Her work has also been integrated into the work of Canadian contemporary dance troupe Holy Body Tattoo.
• The main focus of jenny holzer has been on the investigation of means to disseminate her ideas within public space.

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