Doug Aitken was born in 1968 in Redondo Beach. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Over the last 24 years, Aitken has developed an unparalleled practice that explores the perception of images, narratives, in an ongoing investigation of the 21st century experience.
Biography
Doug Aitken was born in 1968 in Redondo Beach. He lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Over the last 24 years, Aitken has developed an unparalleled practice that explores the perception of images, narratives, in an ongoing investigation of the 21st century experience. Spatial and temporal dislocation is mixed with a dream like quality. His work often takes the form of immersive video installations; single channel video often projected onto architecture, but is also characterized by text sculptures, architectural and sound works, and photography.
Aitken’s works explore the gulf between the broad saturation and availability of images and the vulnerability of individuals, in a period of massive industrial and environmental changes. In contrast, there is a sensitivity and coolness to the environment in which the works are displayed.
Notable museum collaborations include, “Sleepwalkers,” commissioned by the Museumof Modern Art, New York which displayed 7 video screens across the building’s full city block, and the projection of ‘Song 1,’ onto the Hirshhorn Museum’s iconic facade. Similiar outdoor video projections were organized by the Deste Foundation in Athens, and Enel Contemporanea in Rome.
Important solo presentations have been organized by: Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2017); Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth (2017); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2015); Nam June Paik Art Center, South Korea (2013); Seattle Art Museum (2013); Hirshhorn Museum (2012); Tate Liverpool (2012); LUMA Foundation, Arles, France (2012); Deste Foundation, Hydra, Greece (2011); Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati (2010); Museo d’Art Contemporanea Roma, Rome (2009); Inhotihm, Brazil (2009); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007); Aspen Art Museum (2006); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2005); Tokyo Opera City Gallery (2005);The Fabric Museum and Workshop, Philadelphia (2002); Serpentine Gallery, London (2001).
Aitken is the inaugural recipient of the Frontier Art Prize, a new contemporary art award that supports an artist of international stature pursuing bold projects that challenge the boundaries of knowledge and experience to reimagine the future of humanity. He was the recipient of the Golden Lion in the 1999 Venice Biennale.