Isa Genzken

Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948 in Bad Oldesloe, Germany) is a pioneering German artist whose work has expanded the possibilities of sculpture and installation in contemporary art. She studied painting at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg before pursuing photography and graphic arts at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. She also studied philosophy and art history at the University of Cologne and, from 1973 to 1977, attended the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she studied under Gerhard Richter. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, installation, photography, film, video, collage and works on paper, engaging in a sustained dialogue with Constructivism, Minimalism and modernist architecture. Genzken’s art is characterised by a striking diversity of materials and forms. She works with concrete, plaster, wood, textiles and found objects, frequently assembling them into architectonic structures that critics have described as “contemporary ruins.” She also incorporates mirrors and other reflective surfaces that draw viewers physically and perceptually into her work. Her practice consistently questions the conventions of sculpture and blurs the boundaries between “high art” and everyday visual culture, exploring urban life, consumerism and the visual landscape of the contemporary world. Since the 1970s, Genzken has exhibited extensively around the world. Major presentations of her work include Isa Genzken: Retrospective, organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2013 and subsequently presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Dallas Museum of Art. Further surveys and solo exhibitions have been held at institutions including the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and Kunsthalle Bern. She has participated three times in documenta and three times in Skulptur Projekte Münster, as well as in several editions of the Venice Biennale, where she represented Germany in 2007. Her work is held in major museum collections worldwide. Based in Berlin, Genzken remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art, recognised for an experimental and uncompromising approach to materials, form, architecture and cultural critique.