2014 Catalogue Archive

In a dynamic career spanning over 40 years, German artist Isa Genzken has become one of the most important and influential artists in recent decades. Her work spans painting, photography, collage, film, and sculpture. Genzken has developed a unique visual vocabulary through her recent assemblage works that are a mix of Pop sensibility, collage methodology, and found object scrappiness. Often a simultaneous embrace and critique of contemporary culture, her works are highly provocative and engaging. In the same way that her sculptural works redefine assemblage, her two-dimensional works challenge our assumptions about painting, seen in this untitled work from 2008. Using red acrylic as her background, Genzken splatters, pours, and dabs acrylic paint along the bottom third of the sheet, creating a punkish landscape-like composition out of the materials and colors of our contemporary, mass-produced world. Genzken’s solo and group shows are numerous and include venues such as Kunsthalle zu Kiel; Camden Arts Center, London; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles; Museu de Serralves, Porto; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; and Kunstmuseum Winterthur. In 2007, Genzken represented Germany at the Venice Biennale, and her work was exhibited at Skulptur Projekte in Munster. Isa Genzken: Retrospective (organized by Dallas Museum of Art; MoMA, New York; and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) is currently on view at the DMA through January 4, 2015.