Rita McBride (born 1960) is an American artist and sculptor. She is based in Los Angeles and Düsseldorf. Alongside her artistic practice, McBride is a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and served as its director until 2017. McBride is married to Glen Rubsamen, an American painter from Los Angeles. Working at the intersection of architecture, design, and public space, McBride is known for her large scale works and installations, with her wider oeuvre incorporating performance, texts, and smaller scale sculptural work.

Life

Rita McBride was born in Des Moines, Iowa in 1960. She received her BA from

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in New York in 1982 and her MFA from

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

in 1987, where she studied with Michael Asher and

John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a paint ...

. After receiving her MFA, McBride began to exhibit her work widely initially with art galleries in Porto and Los Angeles. Her work has been the subject of more than seventy one-person exhibitions and twenty monographs.

Work and commissions

McBride’s practice is concerned not only with sculptural or architectural form, but likewise the situations and happenings which arise in the audience’s relation to the works. Her most exhibited work, ''Arena'' (1997), for instance, is a modular structure which is assembled into a concave, arena-like seating area. First shown at the

Witte de With Witte Corneliszoon de With (28 March 1599 – 8 November 1658) was a Dutch States Navy officer who served during the Eighty Years' War and the First Anglo-Dutch War. Early life and childhood De With was born on a farmstead in the hamlet of ...

in Rotterdam, ''Arena'' is activated by a calendar of programming curated by McBride and the host institution which range from lectures and artist talks to performance pieces by guest artists. McBride is the editor and co-author of a series of collaborative novels entitled ''Ways'', each of which engage with a particular literary subgenre. Major public commissions include ''Particulates'', Dia Art Foundation, New York; ''Obelisk of Tutankhamum'', Cologne, Germany (2017); ''Donkey’s Way'', Moenchengladbach (2016); ''Artifacts'' ''(C.W.D)'', P.S. 315, Queens, New York (2015); ''Bells and Whistles'',

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

, New York, (2014). ''Mae West'' (2011), one of McBride's most known public works, is a 52-meter tall carbon structure in Munich. Built for the Effnerplatz, a hub for public and private transit in eastern

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, it remarkably includes access for a tram line to run through its latticed base. ''Mae West'' caused a number of debates within the city. The sculpture and its reception by the residents of the area is the subject of ''Day After Day'', a film by Alexander Hick.

Selected exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

* 2017-18: ''Particulates'', Dia:Chelsea, New York * 2017: ''Rita McBride: Explorer'', Wiels, Brussels * 2015-16: ''gesellschaft'',

kestnergesellschaft Kestner Gesellschaft (Kestner Society) is an art institution in Hanover, Germany, founded in 1916 to promote the arts. Its founders included the painter Wilhelm von Debschitz (1871–1948). The association blossomed under the management of and ...

/ Kunsthalle Düsseldorf * 2014: ''Public Tilt'',

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is an art museum in La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood in San Diego, California, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the ...

* 2013-14: ''Public Transaction'', Museo Tamayo, Mexico City * 2012: ''Public Tender'',

Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (, , MACBA, ) is a contemporary art museum situated in the Plaça dels Àngels, in El Raval neighborhood, Ciutat Vella district, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The museum opened to the public on 28 Novembe ...

(MACBA), Spain * 2010: ''Previously'',

Kunstmuseum Winterthur The Kunst Museum Winterthur (The Winterthur Museum of Art) is an art museum in Winterthur, Switzerland run by the local ''Kunstverein''. From its beginnings, the activities of the Kunstverein Winterthur were focused on contemporary art – first ...

, Switzerland * 2008: ''Public Works'', Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany *2008: ''Some Settlements'', Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf *2007: ''Rita McBride'', Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples * 2004: ''Exhibition'', SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York * 2002: ''Naked Came the Stranger'',

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (English language, English: ''Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts'') is a state art museum in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. The building by the Swiss architects Meinrad Morger, Heinrich Degelo and Christian Kerez was complet ...

, Vaduz * 2000: ''Her House with the Upstairs in It'', Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Galerie (DAAD), Berlin * 1999: ''Aloof and Incidental'', Annemarie Verna Galerie and Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich * 1997: ''The Donkey’s Way and Piggybackback'' (in collaboration with Catherine Opie and Lawrence Weiner), Galeria Pedro Oliveira, Porto * 1997: ''Hyperinclusion'', OSMOS, Berlin * 1997: ''Rita McBride'', Alexander and Bonin, New York * 1997: ''Arena & National Chain'',

, Rotterdam * 1994: ''Backsliding, sideslipping, one Great Leap and the “forbidden”'', Michael Klein Gallery, New York * 1990: ''Rita McBride New Work'', Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles * 1989: ''Rita McBride'', Galeria Atlântica. Porto

Selected group exhibitions

* 2017-18: ''Studio for Propositional Cinema , in relationship to a Spectator'', kestenergesellschaft, Hannover * 2016: ''EVERYTHING ARCHITECTURE'', BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels * 2016:

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Since its launch in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 380 new artworks and presented work by over 530 artists from around the world. ...

2016 * 2011: ''Making Is Thinking'',

, Rotterdam * 2007: ''The World as a Stage'',

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

, London and

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The museum was founded as the Boston Museum of Modern Art in 1936. Since then it has gone through multiple name chang ...

* 2003: ''Living Inside the Grid'',

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

, New York * 2002: ''Taipei Biennial 2002: Great Theatre of the World'', Taipei Fine Art Museum * 2000: ''What If: Art on the Verge of Architecture and Design'',

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened Moderna Museet Malmö in Malmö. History The museum opened in Stockh ...

, Stockholm * 1998: ''Where: Allegories of Site in Contemporary Art'',

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

at Champion, Stamford, CT * 1994: ''Breakdown'', Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego * 1991: ''There's no There, There'',

Indianapolis Museum of Art The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is an encyclopedic art museum located at Newfields, a campus that also houses Lilly House, The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, the Garden at Newfields and more. It is located at the corner of No ...

Collections

* Ellipse Foundation, Alcoitão/Cascais * Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona * Bundeskunstsammlung Zeitgenössischer Kunst, Bonn * The Art Institute of Chicago * Museum Ludwig, Cologne *

Des Moines Art Center The Des Moines Art Center is an art museum with an extensive collection of paintings, sculpture, modern art and mixed media. It was established in 1948 in Des Moines, Iowa. History The Art Center traces its roots to 1916, when the Des Moines A ...

, Iowa * FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon *

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 th ...

, Düsseldorf * Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, Hannover * San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California *

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, Los Angeles *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

, Los Angeles *

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

* De Vleeshal, Middelburg, Netherlands * Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach *

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

Queens Museum of Art The Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art) is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. Established in 1972, the museum includes the '' Panorama of the City of Ne ...

, New York *

, New York * Neues Museum, Nuremberg * FRAC Île-de-France, Paris * Museu de Serralves, Porto * Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam * The Achenbach Foundation, San Francisco *

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California, named for early San Francisco newspaperman M. H. de Young. Located on the West Side (San Francisco), West Side of the ci ...

, San Francisco *

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

, San Francisco * Kunstmuseum St. Gallen * De Pont Foundation for Contemporary Art, Tilburg *

, Vaduz * Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne * Wake Forest University Collection, Winston-Salem, North Carolina *

Kunsthaus Zürich The Kunsthaus Zürich is an art museum in Zurich. It is the biggest art museum in Switzerland by area and houses one of the most important art collections in Switzerland, assembled over time by the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, a nonprofit art soc ...

Bibliography

* ''Rita McBride: Public Works, 1988 – 2015''. Texts by Gina Ashcraft, Gregor Jansen, Mark von Schlegell, Susanne Titz, and Christina Végh. Hannover, Kestner Gesellschaft; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Cologne; Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2016 * Fernández-Galiano, Luis, Mark Wigley, Bartomeu Marí and Anne Pöhlmann. Rita McBride. ''Oferta pública / Public Tender''. Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), 2012 * Schwarz, Dieter, Daniel Kurjakovic, and Iris Wien. ''Previously''. Winterthur: Kunstmuseum Winterthur, 2010 * McBride, Rita. ''Explorer''. London: Occasional Papers, 2018

References

External links

Official Website

McBride at Alexander and Bonin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcbride, Rita 1960 births Living people Artists from Des Moines, Iowa Sculptors from Iowa 21st-century American women sculptors 21st-century American sculptors 20th-century American women sculptors 20th-century American sculptors Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf American women academics