Jordan Wolfson is an American artist who lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. He has worked in video and film, in sculptural installation, and in

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), e ...

Biography

Wolfson was born in 1980 in New York. He took a BFA in sculpture from the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

in Providence in 2003. . At that time, Wolfson began producing film and video work and computer animation that was shown in the United States and in Europe. His more recent works range from aluminum and brass sculptures mixed with digital imagery, works using

, and animatronic sculptures. In 2009 Wolfson was awarded the Cartier Award from the Frieze Foundation.

Work

Following Wolfson's first solo museum exhibition, at the

Kunsthalle Zürich The Kunsthalle Zürich is a contemporary art exhibition centre in Zurich, Switzerland. It is located on Limmatstrasse, near the city centre. A number of temporary exhibitions are organized each year. In 2014 Daniel Baumann replaced Beatrix Ruf ...

in 2004, his work was widely shown at galleries and museums in Europe, Asia, and the United States. His work was first exhibited in Germany in 2011 at the

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the ''K20'' at Grabbeplatz, the ''K21'' in the ...

. His first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, ''Raspberry Poser,'' was presented in 2013 at the Chisenhale Gallery in London. ''Jordan Wolfson: Ecce Homo/le Poseur'', organized by the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent in 2013, was the most comprehensive survey of his work to date. In 2014 a selection of Wolfson’s video work was exhibited as part of the 6th

Glasgow International Glasgow International (GI) is a biennial visual arts festival that takes place in Glasgow, Scotland. While Glasgow has a thriving contemporary art scene of its own, GI offers a platform to artists from other countries as well, showcasing the bes ...

and he participated in 14 Rooms at

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel, Switzerland; Miami Beach; Hong Kong and from 2022, Paris. Art Basel works in collaboration with the host city's local institutions to help ...

curated by

Klaus Biesenbach Klaus Biesenbach (born 1966)Erica Orden (December 26, 2009)Herr Zeitgeist''New York Magazine''. is a European American curator and the museum director. He is the Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, with Berggruen Museum and Scharf-Gerstenberg Co ...

and

Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...

. Wolfson was among the youngest artists in the Basel exhibition, a collaboration between Fondation Beyeler,

, and

Theater Basel Theater Basel is the municipal theatre of the city of Basel, Switzerland, which is home to the city's opera and ballet companies. The theatre also presents plays and musicals in addition to operas and operettas. Because the theatre does not ha ...

that also featured the work of Yoko Ono, Damien Hirst, Bruce Naumann, and Marina Abramovic among others. Wolfson's work is represented in public collections worldwide, including Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall;

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporar ...

;

Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...

, Cologne; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent; and the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, New York. In 2020 the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

under the directorship of Nick Mitzevich purchased Wolfson's "Cube" for $6.8 million dollars, about half the museum's annual acquisition budget. The final transport and installation of the work was then delayed until at least until 2021 due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

pandemic. The interactive work will allow visitors to perform various acts, including "playing its own body like an instrument".

''Female Figure''

Wolfson's ''Female Figure'' (2014) is an animatronic sculpture of a woman dressed in a negligée, thigh-high vinyl boots, and a green half-witch mask covered in dirt marks and scuffs. The figure dances seductively, speaking in Wolfson's voice. Using facial recognition technology, she locks eyes with viewers through a mirror. The work addresses the violence of objectification. In 2019 ''ARTnews'' and ''Artnet News'' listed ''Female Figure'' as one of the artworks that defined the decade.

''Colored Sculpture''

Wolfson's Colored Sculpture (2016) was first shown at David Zwirner gallery in New York City and later exhibited at the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

in London,

LUMA Foundation LUMA Foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 2004 that is based out of Zurich, Switzerland. It supports the activities of independent contemporary artists and other pioneers working in the fields of art, photography, publishing, docu ...

in Arles, and at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. The work consists of an animatronic sculptural figure of a boy attached to the ceiling with long chains connected to his head, arm, and leg. The boy's cartoon-like appearance is based on familiar images of Huck Finn, the 1940s television character Howdy Doody, and the MAD magazine character Alfred E. Neuman. The sculpture's movements - the boy is by turn hoisted up, dropped to the floor, and swung through the air - are timed and regulated by motors built into the ceiling. His eyes are equipped with facial recognition technology that allows the sculpture to make eye contact with viewers present in the room.

''Real Violence''

Wolfson's immersive 3-D VR work ''Real Violence'' was included in the 2017

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...

and immediately became the focus of media attention due to the graphic intensity of the acts it portrays. ''Real Violence'' was intended to provoke a conversation about the nature of virtual reality as an authentic experience over which the viewer has authority. The work received criticism at the

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

screening in 2017. The debate concerned the role of the artist, Wolfson's responsibility in making a political statement with his art, and if there is a role of privilege/power hierarchy that should have been addressed when dealing with the subject matter of violence.

Other notable exhibitions

* 2006 – ''Untitled (Frank Painting Company, Inc.),''

, New York * 2007 – ''Optical Sound'', solo exhibition curated by Alessandro Rabottini, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), Bergamo, Italy * 2008 – ''untitled false document'', Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, New York City * 2009 – ''The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers,'' CCA

Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts Established in 1998, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts is a contemporary art center in San Francisco, California, US, and part of the California College of the Arts. It holds exhibitions, lectures, and symposia, releases publications, and ...

, San Francisco * 2012 – ''Animation, masks,'' Alex Zachary Peter Currie gallery, New York City * 2012 – ''Animation, masks,''

Kunsthalle Wien Kunsthalle Wien is the city of Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_of ...

, Vienna * 2012–13 – ''Raspberry Poser'', REDCAT, Los Angeles * 2013–14 – ''Raspberry Poser'', solo exhibition, Chisenhale Gallery, London * 2014 – ''Female Figure'', 14 Rooms, Art Basel, Serpentine Gallery, London * 2016 – ''Colored sculpture'',

David Zwirner Gallery David Zwirner Gallery is an American contemporary art gallery owned by David Zwirner. It has four gallery spaces in New York City and one each in London, Hong Kong, and Paris. History The Zwirner Gallery opened in 1993 on the ground floor of ...

, New York * 2017 – ''Real Violence'' (VR work),

, New York * 2017 – ''Riverboat Song'',

Sadie Coles HQ Sadie Coles HQ is a contemporary art gallery in London, owned and directed by Sadie Coles. The gallery focuses on presenting the work of established and emerging international artists. It was at the forefront of the Young British Artists movement ...

, London * 2018 – ''Riverboat Song'',

, New York * 2022 – ''Transformers. Masterpieces of the Frieder Burda Collection in Dialogue with Artificial Beings''
Museum Frieder Burda
Baden-Baden

References

External links

Jordan Wolfson's Website
* Video
Jordan Wolfson's ''Female Figure'' (2014) dancing
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfson, Jordan 1980 births American conceptual artists Living people Rhode Island School of Design alumni Artists from New York City