Influential artist Jenny Holzer on display at Attenborough Arts Centre through ARTIST ROOMS

ARTIST ROOMS Jenny Holzer
14 June – 29 September 2024
Free Entry

Attenborough Arts Centre brings a new exhibition to Leicester, in partnership with Tate & National Galleries of Scotland: ARTIST ROOMS Jenny Holzer.

American artist Jenny Holzer uses text as her primary material. Born in 1950, she remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. Known for powerful, provocative installations and her creative use of electronic technology, she produces art that is impossible to ignore. Holzer’s work has taken many forms, often appearing in public spaces, on posters, t-shirts, carved stone, signs and large-scale outdoor projections, as well as in museums and galleries across the world.

One of a generation of artists that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s who sought ways to create immersive and experiential artwork that is centred around language, she turned to the strategies of mass media and advertising. Her well-known early work Truisms, which she began in 1977, comprises nearly 300 slogans that play on commonly held truths or clichés. These short, pithy, often contradictory statements infiltrated public spaces around New York City – first as stickers and fly-posters, and later blazed across the electronic billboard in Times Square.

This exhibition, drawn from the ARTIST ROOMS collection, brings together examples of Holzer’s work from different points in her career. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the towering BLUE PURPLE TILT 2007, consisting of seven double-sided vertical LED displays which is programmed with hundreds of messages from her earlier text series.

Holzer uses poetic, personal and political texts, challenging us to consider the words and messages that surround us in contemporary society. She invites us to read and interpret for ourselves, so that people might question the ‘usual baloney they are fed’ in daily life. Confronting current events and topics such as war and sexual violence in her work, Holzer is uncompromising in her search for truth and exposure of systems of power and control.

Andrew Fletcher, Director of Attenborough Arts Centre, said, ‘Jenny Holzer is an early pioneer of conceptual art whose work has had a significant impact on public life. We are delighted to be bringing this compelling exhibition to Leicester for visitors to enjoy this summer.’

ARTIST ROOMS presents the work of international artists in solo exhibitions drawn from a national touring collection jointly owned by Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland. The ARTIST ROOMS programme reaches audiences across the UK and is developed through local partnerships.