Jenny Holzer

Jenny Holzer has been renowned for her provocative use of text in various media and her pioneering adaptation of new technologies since the late 1970s, when she began plastering her multicoloured ‘Inflammatory Essays’ all over New York City. Bringing together examples of these early works with her later light projections, this exhibition at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf (9 March–6 August) explores Holzer’s long-standing commitment to confronting social and political issues in public spaces. Works on display range from photographs of The 42nd Street Art Project, including an image of Kurt Cobain standing in front of Holzer’s billboard that reads ‘Men Don’t Protect You Anymore’. There are also photographs from the artist’s recent anti-gun campaign, for which she toured across the United States in a van covered in LED screens that projected various slogans. Find out more on K21’s website – and you can read Gabrielle Schwarz’s interview with the artist from 2019 here.

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It is Guns (2019), Jenny Holzer. Photo: Joe Carrotta; © 2023 Jenny Holzer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

From the installation Survival (1983–85) in Times Square, New York. Photo: John Marchael; © 2023 Jenny Holzer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Street Art Project, Times Square, New York (1993), Jenny Holzer. Photo: Stephen Sweet; © 2023 Jenny Holzer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn