Jenny Holzer
1950–
Jenny Holzer is widely known for the large- scale public displays of written language she creates in the form of illuminated electronic signs, posters, billboard advertisements, and projections on buildings. Like her contemporary Barbara Kruger, Holzer has explored multiple ways of disseminating commentary and ideas as visual objects in public spaces. Among her first public works were the Truisms, one-line aphorisms she wrote between 1977 and 1979 that originally took the form of posters wheat- pasted to buildings and walls around Manhattan. These thought-provoking, often contradictory statements distilled readings Holzer encountered as a student in the Whitney Independent Study Program. They were later printed on T-shirts and stickers, carved in granite benches, or remixed as part of the Internet art project Please Change Beliefs, started in 1995.
UNEX Sign #1 (Selections from The Survival Series) was among the first of Holzer’s works to present such texts with LED (light-emitting diode) technology, a state-of-the-art means of public communication for government and institutional agencies in 1983. At that time, the piece might have been mistaken for an electronic signboard transmitting ads, instructions, or public announcements. But the work’s fifty-four statements and messages—simultaneously disturbing, cynical, and humorous—instead communicate private thoughts normally deemed inappropriate for public discourse, drawing attention to societal problems such as homelessness or issuing commands to viewers. In a media-saturated world in which news and ads flash by for passive viewers, Holzer uses this instrument of communication to call the viewer to attention, asking for a vigilant response and a close reading of cultural values, societal structures, and tensions between the public and private.
Introduction
Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. Her work focuses on the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other structures, and illuminated electronic displays.
Holzer belongs to the feminist branch of a generation of artists that emerged around 1980, and was an active member of Colab during this time, participating in the famous Times Square Show.
Among the most notable honors she has received for her contributions to the arts are the Leone d'Oro (1990), the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award (1996), the rank of Officier des Arts et des Lettres (2016), the U.S. State Department's International Medal of Arts (2017), and the Time 100 Award (2024), as well as honorary doctorates from Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, the New School, and Smith College.
Wikidata identifier
Q270388
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 8, 2025.
Introduction
Studies included general art courses at Duke University, Durham, NC (1968-1970); painting, printmaking, and drawing at the University of Chicago; BFA at Ohio University, Athens (1972). Courses at the Rhode Island School of Design, 1974 entering its MFA program in 1975 and beginning her first work with language, installation, and public art. She moved to New York in 1977. Her first public works were in the form of anonymous posters pasted on walls in Manhattan, these consisted of commercially printed one-line statements such as ‘Abuse of power comes as no surprise.' She has continued to work with language in various contexts and in media including billboards, television, and electronic signs.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, conceptual artist, installation artist, multimedia artist, painter, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500047276
Names
Jenny Holzer, G'eni Holtser, ג׳ני הולצר
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 8, 2025.
