Consumption

Andrea Zittel was born in 1965 in Escondido, California, and currently lives and works in Joshua Tree, CA. She received a BFA in painting and sculpture in 1988 from San Diego State University and an MFA in sculpture in 1990 from the Rhode Island School of Design. Zittel works at the intersections of design, art, and architecture to create a body of work that questions human nature and our construction of meaning, values, and social norms. Through textiles, furniture, and installation, the artist places self-imposed systems, rules, and restrictions in order to imagine alternative ways of living.

Barbara Kruger was born in 1945 in Newark, New Jersey, and currently lives in New York and Los Angeles. She attended Syracuse University’s School of Visual Arts in 1964 and studied art and design at Parsons School of Design in New York in 1965. Kruger began her career as a graphic designer and picture editor at Condé Nast Publications, an experience that greatly impacted her artistic practice. Using the visual tropes, language, and design aesthetics of commercial advertising and magazines, the artist creates images and installations that reflect and critique the ways in which mass-media culture influences our beliefs at a societal and individual level.

Matthew Barney was born in 1967 in San Francisco, California, and grew up in Boise, Idaho. He now lives and works in New York. Barney received his BA from Yale University in 1989, attending the university on a football scholarship. Influenced by his experiences as an athlete, the artist often looks to his physical body and human biology as the vessels through which he communicates his ideas. Through film, installation, and sculpture, Barney documents real actions and builds immersive universes that explore themes of masculinity, athleticism, and mythology.

Mel Chin was born in 1951 in Houston, Texas, and currently lives and works in North Carolina. He received a BA from Peabody College in 1975. Chin uses technology, collage, sculpture, and large-scale installations to create a body of work centered around environmental, political, and social issues. Working as a conceptual artist, he inserts art into unlikely places and forms, including video games, destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and popular television.

Michael Ray Charles was born in 1967 in Lafayette, Louisiana, and currently lives and works between Austin, Texas, and Ghent, Belgium. He received his BA from McNeese State University in 1989 and his MFA from the University of Houston in 1993. In his work, Charles creates detailed paintings investigating racial stereotypes that are drawn from a history of American advertising, such as product packaging, billboards, radio jingles, and television commercials. Whether appropriating figures from American visual culture like Aunt Jemima or replicating visual tropes associated with minstrelsy, the artist draws connections between racist elements of American history and popular portrayals of American culture today, exposing the underlying racism present in contemporary society.