Biography

Through her post-conceptual approach to art-making, Jac Leirner’s (b. 1961, São Paulo, Brazil) work implies a masterful ability to articulate specific objects, collections, and archives. It concerns the accumulation of memories—things displaced from their original contexts. Here, the symbolic functions of these objects acquire new dynamics. Her work organizes addictions, utensils and tools, official papers, wrappers, and museum paraphernalia according to the internal logics of these materials. Seriality, modulation, and standardization are methods that treat these objects as constructive matrices of language. Leirner’s guiding principle is the presentation of things, in which the material texture of everyday life acquires a new body that assumes the aura of art.

 

selected solo exhibitions 

Jac Leirner, The Swiss Institute, New York, USA (2023); Wolfgang Hahn Prize, Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany (2019); Institutional Ghost, IMMA – Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2017); Add It Up, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2016);

Jac Leirner: Borders are drawn by hand, Museum of Contemporary Arts of Shangai, Shangai, China (2016); Functions of a Variable, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2014); Jac Leirner, Estação Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil (2011); Ad Infinitum, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2002).

 

selected group exhibitions

The past, the present, the possible, Sharjah Biennial 12, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2015); 10ª Bienal do Mercosul, Mesagens de uma nova América, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2015); 12th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2011); 5ª Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2005); 7ª Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba (2000); 47ª Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1997); Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (1992); 20ª Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (1989); Aperto 90, Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (1990); Arte e Videotexto, XVII Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (1983).

 

selected collections

Art Institute of Chicago, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, USA; Ludwig Museum, Köln, Germany; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, USA; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (MAM), São Paulo, Brazil; Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA), San Francisco, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA.