Eleanor Antin, 'The Eight Temptations', 1972, Chromogenic print. (detail). ©Eleanor Antin
Eleanor Antin is one of the most important feminist and Conceptual artists of her generation. She challenged definitions of sculpture, performance, self-portraiture, and documentation with her 1972 work CARVING: A Traditional Sculpture. A key figure emerging from the Conceptual art movements of the 1970s, Antin is today an octogenarian artist and remains one of the world's leading Feminist artists.
Her ground-breaking practice spans five decades and has covered themes surrounding identity, gender, autobiography, class and social structures. Antin's multi-disciplinary approach includes installation, painting, drawing, writing, film, and most notably photography and performance.
Over the last 50 years Antin has performed and exhibited her work globally. She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions including Time's Arrow at LACMA, 2019 (traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago). In 2023, History Tales. Fact and Fiction in History Pictures, was at Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and Roman Allegories & Greek Mythologies, Richard Saltoun Gallery, in Rome, IT. Selected recent solo exhibitions include Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's "Selves", curated by Emily Liebert, ICA, Boston, MA (2014); Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes, San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), CA (2008); Eleanor Antin: Real Time Streaming, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK and Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK (2001); Eleanor Antin Retrospective, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (1999); and Eleanor Antin: Selections from the Angel of Mercy, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1997). In 1975, her seminal exhibition 100 Boots debuted at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. As a performance artist, Eleanor Antin has appeared in venues all around the world, including the 37th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Italy (2005) and The Sydney Opera House, Australia (2002). Her work is included in numerous important public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; the Jewish Museum; LACMA; The Hammer; The Morgan Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, amongst others.
Antin has also participated in significant group exhibitions, at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia, for the 2002 Sydney Biennale; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., and the 37th Venice Biennale.
Antin has been honored with several retrospectives of her work, including Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's 'Selves,' held at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, NY in 2013. In 2000, a survey of Antin's work was on view at the Washington University Gallery of Art in St. Louis, Missouri and in 1999, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2006, Antin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Art Association and a Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts Award from the Women's Caucus for Art, and was also awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1997.
Antin has been honored with several retrospectives of her work, including Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's 'Selves,' held at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, NY in 2013. In 2000, a survey of Antin's work was on view at the Washington University Gallery of Art in St. Louis, Missouri and in 1999, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2006, Antin received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the College Art Association and a Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts Award from the Women's Caucus for Art, and was also awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1997.
The artist lives in San Diego, California.