Biography
Born 1948, Bad Oldesloe, Germany/Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Isa Genzken’s sculptural practice overlaps with film, photography, video, collage, books and works on paper to reflect the anarchy and chaos of the urban landscape. Almost always architecturally inflected, many of Genzken’s sculptures are recognizable as small-scale skyscraper figures that range in density from intense combinations of graphic and painterly detritus to brutalist, concrete buildings with little detail or color. Genzken’s play with scale and montage, in which objects, images and poured paint collide, generates ruptures in visual perception, giving pause to the ways in which the external world is perceived.
Genzken studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, the University of Cologne, Berlin University of the Arts and Hamburg College of Fine Arts. Genzken received the Wolfgang-Hahn-Prize from the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2002) and the Art Prize Berlin (1980). Genzken’s work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions including the German Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale (2007, catalogue); David Zwirner, New York (2005, 2007); Vienna Secession, Austria (2006, catalogue); Wasserspeier and Angels, Hauser and Wirth, London (2004); Kunsthalle Zurich (2003); Empire Vampire Teil II, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachaus Kunstbau, Munich (2003); Galerie Daniel Bucholz, Cologne (2001); Fuck the Bauhaus/New Buildings for New York, AC Project Room, New York (2000); Met Life, EA Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria (1996, catalogue); and Jeder Braucht mindestens ein Fenster, traveling exhibition organized by Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (1992–93, catalogue).
Group exhibitions include the Münster Sculpture Project, Germany (2007); WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007, catalogue); 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2004, catalogue); Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, 50th Venice Biennale (2003); Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (2003, catalogue); 7th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2001, catalogue); and Documenta 9, Kassel, Germany (1992).
