Jessica Stockholder, an artist whose work has transformed the traditional conception of sculpture, will join the University of Chicago faculty as a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts (DOVA) in the Humanities and in the College and aschair of DOVA. Her appointment takes effect July 1, 2011.
Stockholder’s appointment comes as the University prepares for the opening of the Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, which will house DOVA, as well as studio, teaching, rehearsal, and performance space for several arts programs on campus. Stockholder said the University’s lively intellectual atmosphere, as well as the building of the Logan Center, were key factors in her decision to join the faculty.
The artist has won international acclaim for her genre-defying multimedia installation pieces, which incorporate found objects and painting in bold, vibrant colors. In 2007, she received the Lucelia Artist Award, which recognizes exceptional American artists under 50, from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Perhaps best known for her temporary site-specific installations, Stockholder’s work has been discussed in relationship to the works of assemblage artist Robert Rauschenberg, collage artist Kurt Schwitters, painters Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne, as well as artists of the Cubist and Minimalist traditions.
Stockholder’s work has been shown at the Dia Center for the Arts, the Whitney Museum for American Art, Museum of Modern Art PS1, the Venice Biennale, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid. The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago exhibited Stockholder’s installation, “Skin Toned Garden Mapping,” in 1991. She received a 1988 National Endowment for the Arts grant for sculpture and a 1996 Guggenheim Fellowship.
Stockholder studied art at the University of Victoria and received an MFA from Yale University, where she has taught sculpture since 1999.
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