Biography

A pioneering Conceptual artist of the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner was among the first to dematerialize the object of art into pure language. His elegant yet utilitarian typefaces and striking monochromes—stenciled, painted, inscribed, or otherwise applied to walls and surfaces—inescapably alter their given context. Dedicated to the circulation of ideas and meaning, he composes sculptural propositions as texts that describe process, material, and relations. By translating his studio work into words, Weiner communicates the content of each work without specifying any of its physical qualities, thus rendering the work objective, accessible, and useful for a diverse audience. Lawrence Weiner was born in 1942 in the Bronx, New York. Weiner has executed large-scale public commissions in cities including Vancouver, Vienna, Eindhoven, and New York. Recent major exhibitions include “Nach Alles/After All,” Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2000); “Bent and Broken Shafts of Light,” Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2000); “Covered by Clouds,” Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2004); “Lawrence Weiner: Films & Videos,” Tate Gallery, London (2006); “As Far As The Eye Can See,” Whitney Museum of Art, New York (2007, traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles); K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2009); “Lawrence Weiner: Written on the Wind,” Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013); “Within a Realm of Distance,” Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (2015); and “WHEREWITHAL,” Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2016). Weiner currently lives and works in New York and Amsterdam.