Roxy Paine's substantial body of work spans the monumental and the microscopic - from the organic tones of nature to the cold, clean lines of the machine world. Critically, however, his works never rest in one of these spheres, but rather fuse them together to create pieces which confound, provoke, demonstrate and question all at once. Through grappling with events of nature and industry, control and chaos, Paine’s work highlights a perpetual irresolution of these altered realities and how we experience the world around us. Paine continues to reinvent and challenge the relationship between idea and material translation.
Roxy Paine’s work is the subject of numerous museum exhibitions worldwide including Roxy Paine: Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor at Beeler Gallery, Columbus College of Art & Design, OH, 2016–17; Natura Naturans at Villa Panza, Varese, Italy, 2015–16; and Roxy Paine: Scumaks and Dendroids at Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, MO in 2011. In 2009, Paine was selected to create Maelstrom, a site-specific installation for the rooftop garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His work has been installed in prominent public venues such as Madison Square Park in 2009 and Central Park in 2002. Paine has been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Asher B. Durand Award by the Brooklyn Museum and the Trustees Award for an Emerging Artist by the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. His work is included in prominent public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art New York, Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, National Gallery Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., North Carolina Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. The city of San Francisco will soon inaugurate its Central Subway Project with a new site-specific sculptural installation by Paine. A major monograph of the artist’s work has just been published by Rizzoli in fall 2018.