Known for taking art out of the traditional “white cube” of galleries and museums and onto the streets, Jenny Holzer is one of the most potent feminist Neo-Conceptual artists of the 20th century. Her most iconic work critiques the information age and consumerism by reclaiming its primary media — conventional print billboards, storefront posters and LED signs.
“I used language because I wanted to offer content that people — not necessarily art people — could understand,” the Ohio-born Holzer told Interview magazine. She received her MFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design, where her work was influenced by Abstract Expressionism. It was while in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art that Holzer became inspired to work at the intersection of public art and language.
In the late 1970s, after becoming an active participant in the downtown Manhattan artist collective Colab, which included Tom Otterness and Christy Rupp, Holzer began to create her legendary “Truisms” series. Printing anonymous one-line aphorisms in bold and italicized text on broadsheets, she pasted them up in public spaces all over New York City. The “Truisms” are provocative in questioning how we receive and process information. The work elicits debate and represents a range of perspectives. In an era that saw the rise of street art and graffiti, Holzer’s pithy word art would also find viewers by way of T-shirts, stickers and park benches, into which her slogans were carved.
Holzer’s more combative “Inflammatory Essays” (1979–82) took the form of mass-produced posters on colored paper — each featuring paragraphs as compared to the punch-line structure of “Truisms.” These touched on subjects such as violence, misogyny, power structures and consumerism, all of which have continued to be central in her work.
Starting in 1982 as part of a Public Art Fund project, Holzer projected “Protect me from what I want” and other “Truisms” on the Spectacolor board, a large computerized light signboard in New York City’s Times Square. Her “Abuse of power comes as no surprise,” which has appeared on T-shirts as part of the series, has taken on new life in an increasingly politically divided America.
Just as it did in the 1970s, the forcefulness of her work continues to make both viewers and the art world stop and pay attention. She has had solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern in London and elsewhere. She has also created permanent installations including the New York City AIDS Memorial. A 2014 show at New York’s Cheim & Read featured oil-on-linen canvases based on declassified government files pertaining to detainees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Find Jenny Holzer prints and sculptures on 1stDibs.
$5,500
Photographic portrait of Jenny Holzer by Jim Arkatov (signed) with Holzer letter
By Jenny Holzer
Located in New York, NY
Photographic portrait of Jenny Holzer by Jim Arkatov
Photographic Paper
Light Up I!
By Carla Sutera Sardo
Located in New York, NY
PACKAGING: 30x40" and 40x60" prints are shipped in a special fortified tube to guard against bending or damage. Framed 30x40" prints are shipped via FedEx in a bespoke cardboard box ...
Photographic Paper
$450
H 15.75 in W 11.82 in D 0.04 in
French Contemporary Art by Jean-Claude Byandb - Feuillages Aériens
By Jean-Claude Byandb
Located in Paris, IDF
Original digital art on photographic DIBON paper Jean-Claude ByandB is a French artist born in 1949 who lives and works in Saint Cyr sur Loire in France. His artistic research was m...
Photographic Paper
Aqva Pink Flower
By Carla Sutera Sardo
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Carla Sutera Sardo was born in Agrigento in 1983. She studied law and graduated in 2011. During her university career, she became interested in photography, thus s...
Photographic Paper
$1,100
H 16.54 in W 23.06 in D 0.04 in
French Contemporary Photography by Charlotte Brunstein - Songes d’hiver 9
By Charlotte Brunstein
Located in Paris, IDF
Edition 1 of 15 Charlotte Brunstein is a French photographer born in 1978 who lives & works in Paris, France. Her work unfolds within a sensitive space where the image seeks to ...
Photographic Paper
You are My Rainbow II
By Carla Sutera Sardo
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Carla Sutera Sardo was born in Agrigento in 1983. She studied law and graduated in 2011. During her university career, she became interested in photography, thus s...
Photographic Paper
Dreamer Pool
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS PIECE: Beauty, elegance and fierce attitude defines Elena’s eye-catching work. She is known for her high impact colorful portraits. Her style is permeated with the passion for highly aesthetic, strong and elegant imagery, with saturated colors and play of light. Diving into her world means opening the doors of a minimalist and stylized world in which sublime female models play freely to the camera. ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Originally from Russia, Elena Iv...
Photographic Paper
My Furry Valentine 1
By Amanda Pratt
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS PIECE: Amanda Pratt is known and admired for the energetic, inspiring brand of whimsy she brings to photography. Countless clients have benefitted from her technical preci...
Plexiglass, Photographic Paper
Untitled Kara 4
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Through his hundreds of vibrant photographic collages, his sculptural nudes in his recent series For A Good Time and his frequent editorial work for magazines such...
Photographic Paper
$450
H 15.75 in W 11.82 in D 0.04 in
French Contemporary Art by Jean-Claude Byandb - Plante
By Jean-Claude Byandb
Located in Paris, IDF
Original digital art on photographic DIBON paper Jean-Claude ByandB is a French artist born in 1949 who lives and works in Saint Cyr sur Loire in France. His artistic research was m...
Photographic Paper
Red Ballooons
By Liz Von Hoene
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Liz Von Hoene is an award winning fashion photographer and director known for her immaculate concept driven images that strike the right balance between sophistica...
Photographic Paper
Pathos
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS PIECE: "I often combine food with portraits. On the surface, this absurd combination appears to reject any sense of reason (an extension of my own twisted sense of humour)...
Photographic Paper
Balloon
By Carla Sutera Sardo
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Carla Sutera Sardo was born in Agrigento in 1983. She studied law and graduated in 2011. During her university career, she became interested in photography, thus s...
Photographic Paper
Pink Smoke
By Carla Sutera Sardo
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS ARTIST: Carla Sutera Sardo was born in Agrigento in 1983. She studied law and graduated in 2011. During her university career, she became interested in photography, thus s...
Photographic Paper
Untitled from "On The Acropolis"
By Tod Papageorge
Located in New York, NY
Listing includes free shipping in the US and a 14-day return policy. All prints are made to order and will arrive in mint condition directly from Tod Papageorge...
Silver Gelatin, Photographic Paper
French Riviera 4
Located in New York, NY
ABOUT THIS PIECE: Beauty, elegance and fierce attitude defines Elena’s eye-catching work. She is known for her high impact colorful portraits. Her style is permeated with the passion f...
Photographic Paper
Jenny Holzer "Non Lo Sopporto"
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) has an important exhibition history in Italy: In 1990 Holzer was the first woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. That year she won the L...
C Print
Jenny Holzer "There Is Blood"
By Jenny Holzer
Located in Toronto, Ontario
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950) has an important exhibition history in Italy: In 1990 Holzer was the first woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. That year she won the L...
C Print