Glenn Kaino Explained

Glenn Akira Kaino (born 1972) is an American conceptual artist based in Los Angeles.

Early life, education and artistic training

Kaino was born in Los Angeles. Kaino grew up in Cerritos and East Los Angeles; he is fourth-generation Japanese-American. He attended UC Irvine and received a BA in 1993 after which he attended UC San Diego where he completed an MFA in 1997.

Trained as a sculptor, Kaino came of age in the late 1980s – early 1990s, at the height of the culture wars. Working closely with teachers and mentors who at the time were engaged in a critically important reevaluation about the role of identity and politics in contemporary art, Kaino emerged as a member of the first generation of artists of color in the U.S. to begin to consider the ways through which contemporary art could be responsive to the conceptual turn while remaining faithful to the political project of artists and activists of prior decades.^[1]

Early career

Developing his practice at the height of the Internet boom, Kaino began to explore ideas of systems as a way to bring distinct wisdoms and knowledge forms into the language of contemporary art. Informed by the process of kit-bashing, akin to a model-maker's process of reassembling standard models and structures into new and innovative forms, Kaino began to approach his sculptural process as a form of conceptual kit-bashing—appropriating the languages, logics, production processes, and value systems of various fields of study to apply them to his artistic process as a way to consolidate improbable materials.^[2]

Artwork

Kaino's work ranges across a wide range of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and performance.

Kaino's most well-known works include Desktop Operations, a large-scale sand castle structure he debuted at the 2004 Whitney Biennial;^[3] In Revolution, a kinetic sculptural illusion encompassing a rapidly spinning Aeron chair that unveils the image of a chalice as it rotates inside its incubator;^[4] Untitled (Reverse Inverse Ninja Law), a large-scale levitating hammer sculpture made from thousands of small Zapatista dolls made through a collaboration with Zapatista activists in Chiapas;^[5] The Burning Boards, a sculptural moment first shown at the Whitney Museum at Altria that encompasses a chess tournament played with burning candles; Safe, a sculpture made from amassed secrets that visualizes secrecy in material form;^[6] Arch, a large-scale sculpture commissioned by the City of Pittsburgh and the Heinz Endowment;^[7] and In Every Grain, a sculptural environment in which he used air and sand to construct an ephemeral and temporary city-like sculpture for the US Pavilion at the 13th International Cairo Biennale in 2013, where he represented the US.^[8]

Kaino's most recent installation, Sails, was commissioned for the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, to be opened in August 2024.^[9]

Kaino's work has been exhibited internationally and is included in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles,CA;^[10] the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego;^[11] the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA),Newport Beach, California

the Museum Folkwang Essen; and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City.

Influences and collaborations

In addition to his studio practice, Kaino has collaborated with a wide range of organizations and companies on creative projects. An expansion of his ongoing interest in finding platforms in which art and creativity expand beyond the boundaries of the cultural institution, Kaino has worked with Universal Music Group on Farmclub.com and Napster 2.0.^[12]

Kaino has also helped create various experimental venues to support the work of other artists. Working with collaborators Daniel Joseph Martinez, Rolo Castillo, and Tracey Shiffman, Kaino co-founded the seminal artist-run gallery Deep River in Los Angeles in 1997.^[13] Throughout its five years of existence, it was a beacon for artists and experimental practices in Los Angeles. Kaino was also a founding board member of LA>[14] and more recently he created the performance art duo A.Bandit with magician Derek DelGaudio.^[15]

Exhibitions

• Transformer: The Art of Glenn Kaino at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA
• Simple System for Dimensional Transformation at The Project, NYC^[16]
• The Lost World at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, CA^[17]
• Bring Me The Hands of Piri Reis at Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles, CA^[18]
• The Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria, New York City
• The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA
• Performa09 (in collaboration with Creative Time), New York City
• REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
• Safe|Vanish, LAXART, Los Angeles^[19]
• Levitating The Fair (The Flying Merchant Ship) for Art Public, Art Basel Miami Beach
• Experiments from The [Space] Between at The Kitchen, New York City
• Hollow Earth, Desert X, Coachella Valley^[20]
• “With Drawn Arms” at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia^[21]
• "With Drawn Arms" at the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
• In the Light of a Shadow at Mass MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts^[22]
• A Forest for the Trees, Los Angeles, California^[23]

Awards and nominations

• California Community Foundation (CCF) Grant^[24]
• Smithsonian American Art Museum Nominee for Contemporary Artist Award, 2012^[25]
• Represented the US at the 13th annual Cairo Biennale, which ran from December 2012 to February 2013.^[26]

Personal life

Glenn Kaino is married to fashion designer Corey Lynn Calter. They live in Los Angeles with their two daughters, Stella and Sadie, along with their dogs, Gilbert and Winston.^[27]

External links

• Biography of Glenn Kaino on the Creative Exchange Agency website
• Glenn Kaino on the Andy Warhol Museum website
• Stacy, Greg (14 February 2008). "Karen Finley, Glenn Kaino, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Martin Kersels at OCMA's 'Disorderly Conduct'". OC Weekly

Notes and References

1. Web site: LaBelle. Charles. GLENN KAINO: Fish Out of Water. Charles Labelle Selected Criticism. February 28, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131113142544/http://charles-labelle-selected-criticism.blogspot.com/2008/06/glenn-kaino-unpublished-2000.html. November 13, 2013. dead.
2. Web site: Berardini. Andrew. Fall Art Preview. LA Weekly. September 23, 2011. November 13, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131113142556/http://digitalissue.laweekly.com/display_article.php?id=845342. live.
3. Plagens, Peter (March 21, 2004). "Art's Star Search." Newsweek.
4. Stacy, Greg (February 14, 2008). "Karen Finley, Glenn Kaino, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Martin Kersels at OCMA's 'Disorderly Conduct'." Orange County Weekly
5. Firstenberg, Lauri (2006). "Ninjas and Pirates, Revolution and Romanticism: Lauri Firstenberg in Conversation with Glenn Kaino" Art Papers, November/December 2006 issue. Retrieved February 25, 2013
6. Finkel, Jori (September 23, 2010). "Glenn Kaino turns magic into art." Los Angeles Times.
7. Thomas, Mary (July 16, 2008). "L.A. artist's work transforms at Warhol Museum". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved February 25, 2013.
8. UC Irvine Studio Art Department (May 15, 2012) Glenn Kaino to Represent the US at the Cairo Biennale
9. News: Pogrebin . Robin . July 10, 2024 . The New Home of the L.A. Clippers Is a Hot Ticket for Art . July 10, 2024 . The New York Times.
10. Hammer Museum. Glenn Kaino
11. Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Glenn Kaino: (Untitled) Reverse Inverse Ninja Law
12. Web site: Napster Appoints Music Industry Veteran to Lead Artist and Label Relations. PR Newswire (March 23, 2004). February 28, 2013. November 13, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131113145720/http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/napster-appoints-music-industry-veteran-to-lead-artist-and-label-relations-72166877.html. live.
13. Yun, Michelle (2011). "Kaino, Glenn Akira" in The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art, Vol. 1, pp. 8–9. Oxford University Press
14. Web site: Founder's Board. LAXART. February 28, 2013. January 22, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130122232510/http://laxart.org/pages/founders-board/. dead.
15. Calendar, The Kitchen. A.Bandit: Experiments from The (Space) Between featuring Glenn Kaino and Derek DelGaudio
16. News: Cotter . Holland . October 31, 2003 . ART IN REVIEW; Glenn Kaino . July 10, 2024 . The New York Times.
17. News: Knight . Christopher . June 25, 1999 . Laundromat Series Awash in Art History . July 10, 2024 . Los Angeles Times.
18. Web site: Glenn Kaino's Bring Me The Hands of Piri Reis at Honor Fraser Gallery . June 7, 2024 . e-flux Agenda.
19. News: Mohseni . Yasmine . September 30, 2011 . Interview with Glenn Kaino: Now you see him... . July 10, 2024 . The Art Newspaper.
20. Web site: Berger . Erin . April 10, 2017 . An Art-Fueled Road Trip in the Southern California Desert . July 10, 2024 . Outside.
21. News: Janay Manigoult . Taylor . December 12, 2018 . With Drawn Arms: Glenn Kaino & Tommie Smith . July 10, 2024 . Art Papers.
22. Web site: Glenn Kaino in the Light of a Shadow | MASS MoCA. August 11, 2020. May 20, 2021. May 20, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210520171232/https://massmoca.org/event/glenn-kaino-in-the-light-of-a-shadow/. live.
23. News: Vankin . Deborah . May 12, 2022 . Step into Glenn Kaino's magical and immersive forest installation . July 10, 2024 . Los Angeles Times.
24. California Community Foundation. About The Fellowships for Visual Artists
25. Newsdesk, Smithsonian Institution (August 6, 2012). "Smithsonian American Art Museum Announces Artists Nominated for its Contemporary Artist Award"
26. [PR Newswire]
27. Price, Nina. "2013 Looks Bright for LA-Based Power Duo". Los Angeles Confidential