Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer (born 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio), Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Holzer was originally an abstract artist, focusing on painting and printmaking; after moving to New York City in 1977, she began working with text as art. She was an active member of the artist's group Colab.

The main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space. Street posters are her favorite medium, and she also makes use of a variety of other media, including LED signs, plaques, benches, stickers, T-shirts, and the Internet. Her work has also been integrated into the work of Canadian contemporary dance troupe Holy Body Tattoo.

Works

The third phase of Holzer's For the City, projected on the Fifth Avenue side of the New York Public Library, October 6-9, 2005.

Installation in lobby at 7 WTC

• Truisms (1977–) [1] is probably her most well-known work. Holzer has compiled a series of statements and aphorisms ("truisms") and has publicised them in a variety of ways: listed on street posters, in telephone booths, and even, in 1982, on one of Times Square's gigantic LED billboards, or in 1999 on a BMW V12 LMR race car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans
• Inflammatory Essays (1978–79), in which she brought texts influenced by Trotsky, Hitler, Mao, Lenin, and Emma Goldman onto the streets
• Living Series (early 1980s), using more monumental media such as bronze plaques and billboards
• Survival Series (1983–1985), with more militant aphorisms, including "Men Don't Protect You Anymore," a phrase reproduced on condoms and street billboards alike
• Under a Rock
• Lament
• Child Text, a piece on motherhood for the 1990 Venice Biennale
• Green Table (1992), a large granite picnic table with inscriptions, part of the Stuart Collection of public art on the campus of the University of California, San Diego
• Please Change Beliefs (1995) [2], created for the internet art gallery adaweb [3].
• Installation for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997) Permanent Installation, located off the main room of the Guggenheim Bilbao, with tall LED columns of text in English (red, on the front side) and Basque (blue, on the back side).
• Protect Me From What I Want, The 15th iteration of BMWs famous Art Cars[4]. Painted on the BMW V12 LMR, the aforementioned refrain is written in metal foil, oultined with phosphorescent paint. In addition, the phrase "You are so complex, you don't respond to danger" is written on the cars sidepods. The car was withdrawn from the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, but saw active competition for the 2000 Petit Le Mans, finishing fifth overall.
• For the City (2005), nighttime projections of declassified government documents on the exterior of New York University's Bobst Library, and poetry on the exteriors of Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library in Manhattan [5]
• For the Capitol (2007), nighttime projections of quotes by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Theodore Roosevelt about the role of art and culture in American Society. Projected from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts onto the Potomac River and Roosevelt Island in Washington DC. [6]

Detail of 7 WTC installation