Michelle Stuart
b. 1933, United States
American painter and sculptor, born 1933
Since the 1970s, Michelle Stuart (b.1933, Los Angeles, California, US) has received international acclaim for pioneering works that synthesise Land Art, drawing and sculpture. Stuart’s original approach to material and process has seen her create large-scale site-specific works in the landscape, sculptural installations incorporating objects, drawings, and audio-visual elements, as well as photographs, drawings and sculptures that bring the material of landscape – earth and rock – into the gallery.
While much of Stuart’s career has been defined by an inventive use of materials, photography has been her primary medium since 2009. Throughout this period, Stuart has made use of the vast archive of analogue and digital photographs that she has produced and collected over the past half a century, activating the aesthetic potential of these images through process of alteration and recontextualisation. These dreamlike recollections of her past not only continue her life-long artistic engagement with specific locations but affirm the significance of place as a unique source of memory.
Stuart has had solo exhibitions at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, California, US (2019); Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, US (2019); Alison Jacques Gallery, London, UK (2018); Dia:Beacon, New York, US (2017); Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, California, US (2017); Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects at ADAA, New York, US (2017); The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, US (2016); Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, California, US (2015); Parafin, London, UK (2015); Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York, US (2014); Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects at Art Basel, Miami, Florida, US (2014); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, US (2014); and the Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York (2013).
She has had work included in group shows at Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York, US (2021); Galerie Lelong & Co., New York, US (2021); Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, California, US (2019); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, US (2019); The Met, New York, US (2019); Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (2018); MCA Chicago, Illinois, US (2018); Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2018); Tate St Ives, Cornwall, UK (2018); International Print Center, New York, US (2018); Centro de Arte y Naturaleza, Fundación Beulas, Huesca, Spain (2018); MAMAC, Nice, France (2018); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, US (2018); 57th Venice Biennale, Italy (2017); Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, US (2017); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, US (2017); MoMA PS1, New York, US (2016);
Stuart’s work is held in major international museum collections, including SFMOMA, San Francisco, California, US; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California, US; Santa Fe Museum, New Mexico, US; Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany; Tate, London, UK; The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, US; Weatherspoon Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, US; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US.