Jessica Stockholder
1959–
The central element of Jessica Stockholder’s untitled 1995 work—a rattan Papasan chair—is quotidian enough, but its commonplace presence serves primarily as a base for the motley assortment of objects and materials the artist has added to and around it. The chair’s function as a place to sit has been nullified, as it is occupied by a plastic tub and large stretch of velvet. The work’s placement on a wheeled trolley, and its inclusion of a light fixture, impart an aspect of unpredictability and movement. As with many of her works, the piece is anchored to the wall, fixing it in space, in this case by a bright pink electrical cord. All of the components— the chair itself and the grid of yarn skeins on the wall behind—are surfaces upon which Stockholder applies paint. As she explained: “Color drives me. I make art to play with color, to see it work. . . . I experience color as sculptural, as something that collects onto things and takes up space, a physical event existing next to physical objects.”
Stockholder’s sculptures, assemblages, site-specific installations, paintings, and prints make use of ordinary, often nonart materials in extraordinary ways. Each component, from laundry baskets to bowling balls, extension cords, and refrigerators, brings its own associations and histories, while simultaneously engendering fresh resonances when combined with the other items. Evocative and surprising, Stockholder’s work engages both the intellect and feeling: “I work with color, form, and composition,” she explained, “exploring the links between emotive and thoughtful response.”
Introduction
Jessica Stockholder (born 1959) is a Canadian-American artist known for site-specific installation works and sculptures that are often described as "paintings in space." She came to prominence in the early 1990s with monumental works that challenged boundaries between artwork and display environment as well as between pictorial and physical experience. Her art often presents a "barrage" of bold colors, textures and everyday objects, incorporating floors, walls and ceilings and sometimes spilling out of exhibition sites. Critics suggest that her work is informed by diverse artistic traditions, including abstract expressionism, color field painting, minimalism and Pop art. Since her early career, they have noted in her work an openness to spontaneity, accident and marginality and a rejection of permanency, monetization and disciplinary conventions that Stephen Westfall characterized as an "almost shocking sense of freedom."
Stockholder has shown at the Dia Art Foundation, Centre Pompidou, Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, and Venice Biennale. Her work belongs to numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Anonymous Was A Woman and National Endowment for the Arts, among others. She lives in Chicago with her husband, painter Patrick Chamberlain, and is a professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago.
Wikidata identifier
Q15441839
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed November 22, 2024.
Introduction
American artist.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, assemblage artist, installation artist, painter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500116168
Names
Jessica Stockholder
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 22, 2024.
