June 2, 2005

Conceptual Artist, Professor Barbara Kruger To Receive
Golden Lion For Lifetime Achievement At Venice Biennale

By Inga Kiderra

Conceptual artist Barbara Kruger, professor of visual arts at UCSD, will be honored at the 51st Venice Biennale with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Kruger – who is best known for her black, white and red photo-montages with provocative slogans – will be presented with the award in Venice on June 10.

The Venice Biennale, an avant-garde showcase for international art since 1895, opens this year to the public on June 12 and runs through Nov. 6.

A large new installation by Kruger, a “wall tattoo” created for the occasion and called Untitled (Façade), will be on view as part of “The Experience of Art.”

Born in Newark, N.J., in 1945, Kruger first began exploring social and political questions in the 1970s. Her early work as a graphic designer and photo editor at mainstream magazines is evident in her signature style – images found in popular media, which she then subverts with such text as “Buy,” “I shop therefore I am” and “Your body is a battleground.”

Kruger’s career has spanned an extraordinary range of fields, including installation, architecture, sculpture, audio and video, critical writing, curatorship and various forms of public advocacy.

Major retrospectives of her work were held at the Whitney in 2000 and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1999. As well as appearing in museums and galleries worldwide, her work has also appeared in public spaces and on billboards, T-shirts, shopping bags and bus-cards.

Kruger joined the visual arts faculty of UC San Diego in 2002. She has also taught at CalArts, the Art Institute of Chicago and UCLA, among other prestigious institutions. She lives in Los Angeles and New York.

For more about the Venice Biennale: http://www.labiennale.org/en/

Media Contact: Inga Kiderra, (858) 822-0661