Sam Durant

Background

Durant, Sam was born in 1961 in Seattle, Washington, United States.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College Art, Boston. Master of Fine Arts, California Institute Arts.

Career

Often referencing American history, his work explores the varying relationships between culture and politics, engaging subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, southern rock music, and modernism. His work of the 90s was inspired largely by the work of Robert Smithson, an artist well known for his interest in history and entropy. Durant"s work has been widely exhibited internationally and in the United States.

He has had solo museum exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, South.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium, and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Zealand.

His work has been included in the Panamá, Sydney, Venice, and Whitney Biennials. Durant shows with several galleries including Blum & Poe in Los Angeles, Paula Cooper Gallery in New York, Praz-Delavallade in Paris and Sadie Coles Headquarters in London.

His work has been extensively written about including seven monographic catalogs and books In 2005, his exhibition "Proposal for White and Indian Dead Monument Transpositions, Washington District of Columbia" was shown at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New New York

This work derived out of a residency he was conducting at the Walker Art Center in 2002.

He reproduced 30 Indian massacre monuments that are based on similarities to the massive obelisk Washington monument. In 2006, he compiled and edited a comprehensive monograph of Black Panther artist Emory Douglas’ work. His recent curatorial credits include Eat the Market at the Los Angeles County Museum and Black Panther: the Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the New Museum in New New York

In addition, he was a finalist for the 2008 Hugo Boss Prize and has received a United States Artists Broad Fellowship and a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Grant.

His work can be found in many public collections including The Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, Tate Modern in London, Project Row Houses in Houston, and the Museum of Modern Art in New New York Durant teaches art at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California.

Durant received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture in 1986 from the Massachusetts College of Art and an Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts.

Achievements

• Sam Durant has been listed as a notable artist by Marquis Who's Who.