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Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other structures, and illuminated electronic displays.
Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, and was an active member of Colab during this time, participating in the famous Times Square Show.
Among the most notable honors she has received for her contributions to the arts are the Leone d'Oro (1990), the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (1996), the rank of Officier des Arts et des Lettres (2016), the U.S. State Department's International Medal of Arts (2017), and the Time 100 Award (2024), as well as honorary doctorates from Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the New School, and Smith College.
Holzer was born on July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio. Originally aspiring to become an abstract painter, she took general art courses at Duke University (1968–70) and then studied painting, printmaking, and drawing at the University of Chicago before completing her BFA at Ohio University in 1972. After taking summer courses at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974, she entered its MFA program in 1975. She moved to Manhattan in 1976, joined the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program, and began her first work with language, installation and public art. She received her MFA from RISD in 1977 and was an active member of Colab from 1977 to around 1981, participating in the famous Times Square Show and other Colab projects. Holzer worked as typesetter for Laundry News, a laundromat-industry trade newspaper, to pay the bills at the beginning of her career, and this work influenced her artistic practice.
Holzer is known as a neo-conceptual artist. Most of her work is presented in public spaces and includes words and ideas, in the form of word art (also known as text art.). The public dimension is integral to Holzer's work. Her large-scale installations have included advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other architectural structures, and illuminated electronic displays. LED signs have become her most visible medium, although her diverse practice incorporates a wide array of media including street posters, painted signs, stone benches, paintings, photographs, sound, video, projections, the Internet, T-shirts for Willi Smith, and a race car for BMW. Text-based light projections have been central to Holzer's practice since 1996. From 2010, her LED signs started becoming more sculptural. Holzer is no longer the author of her texts, and in the ensuing years, she returned to her roots by painting.[when?]
Holzer only uses capital letters in her work and frequently words or phrases are italicized. She has stated before that this is because she wants to "show some sense of urgency and to speak a bit loudly".
Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, looking for new ways to make narrative or commentary an implicit part of visual objects. Other female contemporaries include Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Charlesworth, and Louise Lawler.
The subject of Holzer's work often relates to feminism and sexism. Her work discusses heavy subjects such as sexual assault against women. She has said that she gravitates towards subjects such as this due to family dysfunction she has experienced and because she claims "we don't need work on joy."
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Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other structures, and illuminated electronic displays.
Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, and was an active member of Colab during this time, participating in the famous Times Square Show.
Among the most notable honors she has received for her contributions to the arts are the Leone d'Oro (1990), the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (1996), the rank of Officier des Arts et des Lettres (2016), the U.S. State Department's International Medal of Arts (2017), and the Time 100 Award (2024), as well as honorary doctorates from Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the New School, and Smith College.
Holzer was born on July 29, 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio. Originally aspiring to become an abstract painter, she took general art courses at Duke University (1968–70) and then studied painting, printmaking, and drawing at the University of Chicago before completing her BFA at Ohio University in 1972. After taking summer courses at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974, she entered its MFA program in 1975. She moved to Manhattan in 1976, joined the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program, and began her first work with language, installation and public art. She received her MFA from RISD in 1977 and was an active member of Colab from 1977 to around 1981, participating in the famous Times Square Show and other Colab projects. Holzer worked as typesetter for Laundry News, a laundromat-industry trade newspaper, to pay the bills at the beginning of her career, and this work influenced her artistic practice.
Holzer is known as a neo-conceptual artist. Most of her work is presented in public spaces and includes words and ideas, in the form of word art (also known as text art.). The public dimension is integral to Holzer's work. Her large-scale installations have included advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other architectural structures, and illuminated electronic displays. LED signs have become her most visible medium, although her diverse practice incorporates a wide array of media including street posters, painted signs, stone benches, paintings, photographs, sound, video, projections, the Internet, T-shirts for Willi Smith, and a race car for BMW. Text-based light projections have been central to Holzer's practice since 1996. From 2010, her LED signs started becoming more sculptural. Holzer is no longer the author of her texts, and in the ensuing years, she returned to her roots by painting.[when?]
Holzer only uses capital letters in her work and frequently words or phrases are italicized. She has stated before that this is because she wants to "show some sense of urgency and to speak a bit loudly".
Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, looking for new ways to make narrative or commentary an implicit part of visual objects. Other female contemporaries include Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, Sarah Charlesworth, and Louise Lawler.
The subject of Holzer's work often relates to feminism and sexism. Her work discusses heavy subjects such as sexual assault against women. She has said that she gravitates towards subjects such as this due to family dysfunction she has experienced and because she claims "we don't need work on joy."