Ordinary Sand Compressed to a Point and Sparks Begin to Fly, 2008
Vinyl wall text
Dimensions variable

artist profile

Lawrence Weiner

born

1942

lives and works

New York, USA

about the artist

Lawrence Weiner’s text-based works have indelibly shaped the evolution of Conceptual Art since its inception in the late 1960s. His primary mode of expression is the wall installation manifested in the form of language. Embedded in this language are neutral descriptions and instructions of fabrication procedures, gestures, material structures that can only be fully realized through the act of looking performed by the viewer. Weiner champions the egalitarian purpose of art as a means of enriching lives through a presentation that communicates without necessitating (or might even be hindered by) contextual information or physical production. For his radically groundbreaking work, Weiner has been honored with many accolades, among them two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1976 and 1983 respectively, the Arthur Kopcke Prize in 1991, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994, and the Wolfgang Hahn Prize in 1995. The artist has held many notable solo exhibitions all over the world, at sites such as the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., USA; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, USA; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, Germany; the Tate Gallery in London, UK; and the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, China. A large retrospective, AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE, traveled from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles to the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, USA, over the years 2007 and 2009. 

  • Selected exhibition history
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Art Gallery of Ontario, Ottawa, Canada

Art Institute of Chicago, USA

Boymans-van Beuningen Msueum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

British Museum, London, UK

Carnegie Institute of Fine Art, Pittsburgh, USA

Capc Musee d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France

City of Ballerup, Denmark

City of Barcelona, Place Mistral, Barcelona, Spain

City of Biele, Tabula Rasa, Biele, Switzerland

City of Chagny, France

City of Cologne and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

City of Eindhoven, De Rode Loper, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

City of Gennazzno, Italy

City of Hostebro, Denmark

City of Paris, Les Tuilleries, Paris, France

City of Villeurbanne, Place Mendez-France, Villeurbanne, France

DIA Foundation, Beacon, New York, USA

Federal Courthouse Sint Annadal, Maastricht, Netherlands

Gentofte Kommunes Kunstbibliotek, Hellerup, Denmark

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain

Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands

Haags Hogeschool, Den Haag, The Netherlands

Hamburg Harbor, Germany

Henry Moore Sculpture Trust, Halifax, UK

Het Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Te Gent, Ghent, Belgium

Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

Krefelder Kunst Museen, Haus Esters, Germany

Kroller-Moller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands

Kunsthof Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Wolfsburg, Germany

Lawrence Weiner Poster Archive at the Vancouver art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Maienburg Railway Station, The Netherlands

Marin Visser Collection, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Middelheim Openluchtmuseum, Antwerp, Belgium

Moderna Galerija Ljubjana, Slovenia

Musee Saint Pierre, Art Contemporain, Lyon, France

Musee de Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Musee de Toulon, France

Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria

Museum fur Modern Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany

Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, USA

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, Canada

Panza di Biumo Collection, Varese, Italy

Poets Walk, Citicorp Plaza, Los Angeles, California

Public Art Fund/Con Edison, New York, USA

Sol Le Witt Collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York USA

Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany

Spui, Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany

Stadtisches Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

University of Akureyri, The Livrary, Iceland

University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

Venloer Strasse 21, Coogne, Germany

Villa di Versegnis, Italy

Walker Center for the Visual Arts, Minneapolis, USA

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA