Lawrence Weiner

Biography

A key figure in Conceptual Art, Lawrence Weiner has long pursued inquiries into language and the art-making process. From his pioneering installation works of the 1960s and '70s through his new digital projects, Weiner posits a radical redefinition of the artist/viewer relationship and the very nature of the artwork. Translating his investigations into linguistic structures and visual systems across varied formats and manifestations, Weiner has also produced books, films, videos, performances and audio works.

In his recent series of digital works, Weiner stakes out new territory even as he extends these investigations. Evoking analytic philosophy and linguistic games, Weiner deploys animated drawings and epigrammatic text that interact in a symbolic language. Ultimately, these visual and linguistic systems take on provocative narrative meaning.

Lawrence Weiner was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1942. He has received numerous grants and awards, including the Skowhegan Medal for Painting/Conceptual Art; Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany; the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, among many others. Weiner's works have been widely exhibited internationally. Recent solo exhibitions have been seen at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Dia Center for the Arts, New York; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Bordeaux; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany. His work has been included in major group exhibitions internationally, including Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and the Venice Biennial.

In 2007-2008, Weiner was honored with a 40-year retrospective of his work, entitled Lawrence Weiner: AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Weiner lived and worked in New York until his death in 2021.