Jordan Wolfson
Born1980 (age 43–44)
New York, US
Alma materRhode Island School of Design
AwardsCartier Award
2009
Websitejordanwolfson.org

Jordan Wolfson is an American visual artist who lives in Los Angeles. He has worked in video and film, in sculptural installation, and in virtual reality.

Biography

Jordan Wolfson was born in 1980 in New York to Ashkenazi Jewish parents. Wolfson grew up in a secular Jewish household. He often incorporates his Jewish heritage in his Art utilizing themes of Jewish identity and cultural symbols, such as the star of David.[1] He took a BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 2003.[2] At that time, Wolfson began producing film and video work and computer animation that was shown in the United States and in Europe.[3] His first exhibition took place at Galleri Brändström & Stene in Stockholm, when he was 22.[2]

His more recent works range from aluminum and brass sculptures mixed with digital imagery, works using virtual reality, and animatronic sculptures. [4]

In 2009 Wolfson was awarded the Cartier Award from the Frieze Foundation.[5][6]

Work

Following Wolfson's first solo museum exhibition, at the Kunsthalle Zürich 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. His first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, Raspberry Poser, was presented in 2013 at the Chisenhale Gallery in London.[7]

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 and he participated in 14 Rooms at Art Basel[8] curated by Klaus Biesenbach and Hans Ulrich Obrist. Wolfson was among the youngest artists in the Basel exhibition, a collaboration between Fondation Beyeler, Art Basel, and Theater Basel[9] 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; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

In 2020 the National Gallery of Australia 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 pandemic.[10][11] The interactive work will allow visitors to perform various acts, including "playing its own body like an instrument".[11]

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.[12] The figure dances seductively, speaking in Wolfson's voice. Using facial recognition technology, she locks eyes with viewers through a mirror.[12] The work addresses the violence of objectification.[13] In 2019 ARTnews[14] and Artnet News[15] 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 in London, LUMA Foundation 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.[16] 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.[16]

Real Violence

Wolfson's immersive 3-D VR work Real Violence was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial and immediately became the focus of media attention due to the graphic intensity of the acts it portrays.[17][18][19] 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 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.[20]

Other notable exhibitions

References

  1. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson - Biography". David Zwirner. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  2. 1 2 "How Do I Feel More? A Weekend With JORDAN WOLFSON". 032c. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2023-08-19.
  3. ↑ "KALEIDOSCOPE | Interview: Jordan Wolfson". Kaleidoscope.media. 2016-10-17. Archived from the original on 2018-06-09. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  4. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson on Transforming the "Pollution" of Pop Culture Into Art". Artspace. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  5. ↑ "The Cartier Award". Frieze Foundation.
  6. ↑ "The Cartier Award 2009: Jordan Wolfson". e-flux.com. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  7. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson: Raspberry Poser". Chisenhale Gallery. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  8. ↑ Schuetze, Christopher (18 June 2014). "Where Exhibits Chat and Go Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  9. ↑ "14 Rooms". Art Basel. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  10. ↑ "Controversial $6.8 million art acquisition delayed due to coronavirus". 24 April 2020.
  11. 1 2 Greenberger, Alex (March 9, 2020). "Jordan Wolfson's Latest Provocation Has Already Been Acquired by the National Gallery of Australia". Artnet. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  12. 1 2 Times, Los Angeles (30 December 2014). "Jordan Wolfson's robot-sculpture finds a home at the Broad museum". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
  13. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson's robot: In the Moment of Terror". Spike Art Magazine. 2014-07-31. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  14. ↑ ARTnews, The Editors of (2019-11-28). "The Most Important Artworks of the 2010s". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-10-06. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  15. ↑ "The 100 Works of Art That Defined the Decade, Ranked: Part 3". artnet News. 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
  16. 1 2 "'Colored Sculpture', Jordan Wolfson, 2016 | Tate".
  17. ↑ Lehrer, Adam (2017-03-14). "10 Art Works You Must See At The 2017 Whitney Biennial". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  18. ↑ Eckardt, Stephanie (2017-03-15). ""The Work Is Repellant": All the Horrified Reactions to Jordan Wolfson's Ultraviolent VR Art at the Whitney Biennial". W Magazine. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  19. 1 2 Freeman, Nate (2017-03-01). "A History of Violence: Jordan Wolfson on His Shocking Foray into VR at the Whitney Biennial". ARTnews. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  20. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson Evades the Politics of His Violent Images". Hyperallergic. 2017-06-23. Retrieved 2017-06-25.
  21. ↑ "Whitney Biennial 2006, Day for Night". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  22. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson, Optical Sound". GAMeC. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  23. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson". Swiss Institute. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  24. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson". CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  25. ↑ "The Exhibition Formerly Known as Passengers: 2.6 Jordan Wolfson". CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  26. ↑ Smith, Roberta (2012-01-26). "JORDAN WOLFSON". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  27. ↑ "video of the month # 75". Kunsthalle Wien. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  28. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson: Raspberry Poser". REDCAT. 2012-08-15. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  29. ↑ "Archive Past Exhibitions Jordan Wolfson". Chisenhale Gallery. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  30. ↑ "Have you seen Jordan Wolfson's new animatronic?". Phaidon. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
  31. ↑ Questionsandart (2018-05-21). "a critique of the spectacle". Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  32. ↑ "Jordan Wolfson: Riverboat song | David Zwirner".
  33. ↑ "JORDAN WOLFSON: Riverboat song". 5 June 2018.
  34. ↑ "Roboter in der Kunst. Erstkontakt". 20 February 2023.

Further reading

  • "Jordan Wolfson: Ecce Homo/le Poseur," texts by Esther Leslie, Linda Norden, and Philippe Van Cauteren. Interview with the artist by Aram Moshayedi. REDCAT, Los Angeles, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, 2013. ISBN 978-3-863354-14-5
  • Jordan Wolfson, Marion Ackermann (dir.) and Moritz Wesseler. Interview with the artist by Stefan Kalmár. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and Distanz, Berlin, 2012. ISBN 978-3-942405-48-5
  • Cotter, Holland. "Jordan Wolfson." New York Times, April 11, 2014.
  • Tumlir, Jan. "Jordan Wolfson." Artforum (March 2013): 285 [ill.]
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