Rachel Harrison (artist) explained

Rachel Harrison
Birth Date:	1966
Birth Place:	New York City
Nationality:	American
Education:	Wesleyan University
Field:	Sculpture

Rachel Harrison (born 1966) is an American visual artist known for her sculpture, photography, and drawing.^{[1] [2] [3]} Her work often combines handmade forms with found objects or photographs, bringing art history, politics, and pop culture into dialogue with one another.^{[4] [5] [6]} She has been included in numerous exhibitions in Europe and the US, including the Venice Biennale (2003 and 2009), the Whitney Biennial (2002 and 2008) and the Tate Triennial (2009).^[7] Her work is in the collections of major museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and Tate Modern, London; among others.^[7] She lives and works in New York.^[8]

Early life

Harrison was born in 1966 in New York City.^{[8] [9]} Her mother was born in New Jersey and her father was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were both of Polish and Russian Jewish descent.^[10] In 1989 Harrison earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honors from Wesleyan University, where she first enrolled as an anthropology major but later switched to fine art, studying under the sculptor Jeffrey Schiff and the composer Alvin Lucier.^{[11] [10]}

Career

Harrison’s early work is characterized by a provisional use of everyday materials, often responding directly to the architectural context in which it was situated.^[12] In 1996, she had her first solo exhibition, titled Should home windows or shutters be required to withstand a direct hit from an eight-foot-long two-by-four shot from a cannon at 34 miles an hour, without creating a hole big enough to let through a three-inch sphere?, at Arena Gallery, New York. Here Harrison covered the parlor of a Brooklyn brownstone with imitation-wood paneling, small sculptures, cans of peas, and photographs of green trash bags that came from a single contact sheet.^{[13] [14]} The title of the show was taken from the first sentence of a news article the artist read about the politics of insurance codes and natural disasters, following the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in Florida.^[15]

In 2001, Harrison’s exhibition Perth Amboy opened at her New York gallery, Greene Naftali. The exhibition presented a series of 21 photographs that she took the previous year of an apparition of the Virgin Mary that allegedly manifested in the second-story window of a house in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, alongside installation components.^[16] Roberta Smith described the exhibition in the New York Times as "an effective meditation on vision, belief and the search for the self."^[17] Perth Amboy was acquired by The Museum of Modern Art in 2011 and was exhibited in 2016.^[18]

Harrison's 2007 exhibition If I Did It comprised ten sculptures named after famous men such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Al Gore, and Alexander the Great, and a series of 57 photographs titled Voyage of the Beagle in which the artist documented a range of three-dimensional objects, from sculptures to display mannequins.^{[19] [11] [20]} The sculptures in If I Did It are characterized by the collision between abstract, brightly colored forms and found or store-bought consumer objects.^[21] For the critic John Kelsey, Harrison’s sculpture of this period “sets itself up as a sort of switching station where cultural materials and meanings are violently disconnected and recombined.”^[22] The works in If I Did It were first shown in New York and then traveled to Migros Museum in Switzerland and Kunsthalle Nürnberg in Germany. The exhibition and its accompanying catalog are titled after O. J. Simpson’s “ill-fated memoir” of the same name.^[23]

Harrison often draws from popular culture and celebrity in her work, placing those references alongside art-historical ones.^[24] For instance, in her 2012 exhibition The Help (which shared a title with a Hollywood movie), the pieces shown featured references to the Brian de Palma film Scarface and the singer Amy Winehouse, as well as to artists like Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso, and Marcel Duchamp.^[25] In 2013, Harrison received her first public art commission for the sculpture Moore to the Point in Dallas, part of the Nasher Sculpture Center's Nasher XChange exhibition.^[26] The work points to and frames the existing Henry Moore sculpture Three Forms Vertebrae, installed near Dallas City Hall. Harrison’s intervention calls attention to how the public interacts with works of public art.^[27]

In 2009, the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College presented Consider the Lobster, the first major survey exhibition of Harrison’s work. It included four room-sized installations, a series of individual sculptures, and a gallery devoted to video. The exhibition traveled, with altered titles and checklists, to Portikus, Frankfurt (under the title HAYCATION), and Whitechapel Gallery, London (as Conquest of the Useless).^[28] In October 2019 Harrison was the subject of a large-scale survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.^[3] Entitled Rachel Harrison Life Hack, the exhibition assembled over one hundred works from 1991 to the present and received numerous positive reviews. Interview Magazine called the show “less a staid re-presentation of her masterpieces and more an audacious, rambunctious artwork all in itself.”^[29] Hal Foster wrote in Artforum that “her work is concerned less with exposing cultural myths than with retelling them, often in a perverse way.”^[30]

Exhibitions

Select solo exhibitions

• Should home windows or shutters be required to withstand a direct hit from an eight-foot-long two-by-four shot from a cannon at 34 miles an hour, without creating a hole big enough to let through a three-inch sphere?, Arena Gallery, Brooklyn, New York (1996)^[31]
• The Look of Dress-Separates, Greene Naftali, New York (1997)^[32]
• Patent Pending: Beveled Rasp Sac, Greene Naftali, New York (1999)^[33]
• Perth Amboy, Greene Naftali, New York (2001)^[34]
• Brides and Bases, Oakville Galleries, Toronto (2002)^[35]
• Currents 30: Rachel Harrison, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee (2002)^[36]
• Posh Floored as Ali G Tackles Becks, Camden Art Centre, London (2004)^[37]
• Excuse Me?, Arndt + Partner, Berlin (2004)^[38]
• Lakta/Latkas, Greene Naftali, New York (2004)^[39]
• New Work, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2004)^[40]
• Car Stereo Parkway, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (2005)
• When Hangover becomes Form, with Scott Lyall, Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; LACE, Los Angeles (2006)^[41]
• Checking the Tires, Not To Mention The Marble Nude, Galerie Christian Nagel, Köln (2006)^[42]
• If I Did It, Greene Naftali, New York (2007)^[43]
• Voyage of the Beagle, Migros Museum, Zurich (2007)^[44]
• Lay of the Land, Le Consortium, Dijon (2008)^[45]
• Sunny Side Up, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2008)^[46]
• Consider the Lobster, Hessel Museum, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson (2009)^[47]
• HAYCATION, Portikus (2009)^[48]
• Conquest of the Useless, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010)^[49]
• Asdfjkl;, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2010)^[50]
• Double Yolk, with Scott Lyall, Galerie Christan Nagel, Antwerp (2011)^[51]
• The Help, Greene Naftali, New York (2012)^[52]
• Villeperdue, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna (2013)^[53]
• Fake Titel, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany (2013)
• Fake Titel: Turquoise-Stained Altars for Burger Turner, S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (2013)^[54]
• Who Gave You This Number?, New York University Institute of Fine Arts, New York (2014)^[55]
• Three Young Farmers, Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2015)^[56]
• Gloria: Robert Rauschenberg & Rachel Harrison, Cleveland Museum of Art (2015)^[57]
• Rachel Harrison: Perth Amboy, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016)^[58]
• Depth Jump to Second Box, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (2016)^[59]
• Prasine, Greene Naftali, New York (2017)^[60]
• House of the Dolphins, Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo (2018)^[61]
• Rachel Harrison Life Hack, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019)^[3]
• Drawings, Greene Naftali, New York (2020)^[62]

Select group exhibitions

• New Photography 14, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998)^[63]
• Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2002)^[64]
• The Structure of Survival, Dreams and Conflicts: The Dictatorship of the Viewer, 50th Venice Biennale, Arsenale di Venezia, Venice (2003)^[65]
• 54th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2004)^[66]
• Of Mice and Men, The 4th Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art (2006)^[67]
• Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art (2008)^[68]
• Altermodern, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London (2009)^[69]
• Making Worlds, 53rd Venice Biennale, Italian Pavilion, Venice (2009)^[65]
• The Original Copy: Photography of Sculptures, 1839 to Today, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Kunsthaus Zürich (2010)^[70]
• Blues for Smoke, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2012)^[71]
• Nasher Xchange, Dallas City Hall Plaza, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2013)^[72]
• Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age, Museum Brandhorst, Munich; mumok, Vienna (2015)^[73]
• Ordinary Pictures, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2016)^[74]
• M/D Coda, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2017)
• Faithless Pictures, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2018)
• Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy, Met Breuer, New York (2018)^[75]
• Participation to Jay DeFeo : The Ripple Effect, Le Consortium, France, Dijon (2018)^[76]
• Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019, Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, England (2019)^[77]
• Marcel Duchamp: The Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2019)^[78]
• Participation to Jay DeFeo : The Ripple Effect,

Public collections

Harrison's work can be found in a number of public institutions, including:

• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago^[79]
• Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas^[80]
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland^[81]
• Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York^[82]
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.^[83]
• Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston^[84]
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles^[85]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York^[86]
• Moderna Museet, Stockholm^[87]
• Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles^[88]
• Museum of Modern Art, New York^[89]
• Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York^[90]
• Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• Tate Modern, London^[91]
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis^[92]
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York^[93]

Awards

• Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2010)^[94]
• Calder Prize and residency (2011)^[95]
• Anonymous Was A Woman Award (2015)^[96]
• Gold List: Top Contemporary Artists of Today - 5th Edition, Int. Art Market Magazine, Tel Aviv, 2020^[97]

Bibliography

• Basilico, Stefano, Rachel Harrison, and Gareth James. Currents 30: Rachel Harrison. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum, 2002.
• Munder, Heike, Ellen Seifermann, and John Kelsey. If I Did It. Zürich: Migros Museum and JRP Ringier, 2007.
• Banks, Eric, and Sarah Valdez, eds. Rachel Harrison: Museum With Walls. Annandale-on-Hudson, New York: Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College; London: Whitechapel Gallery; Frankfurt am Main: Portikus, 2010.
• Harrison, Rachel. Abraham Lincoln. New York: Printed Matter, 2010.
• Harrison, Rachel. “Rump Steak with Onions.” Triple Canopy. Web project, 2011.^[98]
• Figner, Susanne and Martin Germann, eds. Fake Titel. Cologne: König, 2013.
• Rutland, Beau, ed. Rachel Harrison: G•L•O•R•I•A. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015.
• Sussman, Elisabeth and David Joselit. Rachel Harrison Life Hack. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2019.
• Banks, Eric, ed. The Classics. New York: Greene Naftali, 2020.
• Cesarco, Alejandro, ed. Rachel Harrison / Haim Steinbach: Between Artists. New York: Art Resources Transfer, 2020.

External links

• Rachel Harrison – Greene Naftali
• Rachel Harrison at Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna
• Rachel Harrison – Saatchi Gallery
• Rump Steak with Onions by Rachel Harrison – Triple Canopy
• "Better Read #036, Rachel Harrison’s Life Hack" – greg.org

Notes and References

1. Schjeldahl . Peter . The Shape We're In: The timely sculpture of Rachel Harrison . The New Yorker . 19 December 2019 . en . 15 December 2014.
2. Web site: Rachel Harrison and Nayland Blake. October 1, 2008. BOMB magazine. March 26, 2018.
3. Web site: Rachel Harrison Life Hack. Whitney Museum of American Art. October 25, 2019. June 11, 2021.
4. Book: Basilico, Stefano. Currents 30: Rachel Harrison. Milwaukee Art Museum. 2002. 15. 0944110983.
5. Book: Seifermann, Ellen. If I Did It. 978-3-905770-56-8. Many Layered Objects: Notes On Rachel Harrison's Strategies. 2007 . 116.
6. Web site: The Whitney to Present Rachel Harrison's First Full Scale Survey. Whitney Museum of American Art. August 13, 2019. June 11, 2021.
7. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Greene Naftali. June 12, 2021.
8. http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/rachel_harrison.htm "Rachel Harrison – Artist's Profile"
9. Book: Phaidon Editors . Great Women Artists . 2019 . Phaidon Press . 978-0714878775 . 173.
10. News: The Shape We're In. Schjeldahl. Peter. 2014-12-22. The New Yorker. 0028-792X. 2016-03-04.
11. http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/4218 "Rachel Harrison"
12. Book: Sussman, Elisabeth . Rachel Harrison Life Hack . Whitney Museum of American Art . 2019 . 226 . Two or Three Things I Know About Her . 9780300246858.
13. Web site: Rachel Harrison. www.zingmagazine.com. 2019-08-25.
14. Book: Rachel Harrison Life Hack . Whitney Museum of American Art . 2019 . 28. 9780300246858.
15. Web site: A Storm Over Housing Codes. Quint. Michael. The New York Times. December 1, 1995.
16. Book: Mohebbi, Sohrab. The Marieluise Hessel Collection: Volumes I & II. Rachel Harrison. 2021. 398.
17. News: Roberta. Smith. Rachel Harrison. The New York Times. April 13, 2001. 27 November 2022. subscription.
18. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Perth Amboy. 2001 . The Museum of Modern Art. June 17, 2021.
19. Web site: If I Did It. Greene Naftali. February 23, 2007. June 11, 2021.
20. Book: Joselit, David. Rachel Harrison Life Hack. 2019. Rachel Harrison, Untranslatable. 9780300246858. 252.
21. News: Brian. Boucher. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Art in America. June 2007. 86.
22. Book: Kelsey, John. If I Did It. 2007. 122. Sculpture in an Abandoned Field. 978-3-905770-56-8.
23. News: Burton. Johanna. Rachel Harrison. Artforum. May 2007. 369.
24. Book: Bankowsky, Jack. Museum With Walls. Monkey House Blessing Potpourri. 2010. 978-1936192038.
25. Web site: Anne. Doran. Rachel Harrison - Reviews. Art in America. 11 May 2017 . June 17, 2021.
26. Web site: Deep in the Art of Texas – News – Art in America. www.artinamericamagazine.com. 30 October 2013 . 2016-03-04.
27. Web site: Nasher XChange: Moore to the point - Rachel Harrison. October 19, 2013. Nasher Sculpture Center.
28. Book: Rachel Harrison Life Hack . Whitney Museum of American Art . 2019 . 141. 9780300246858.
29. News: Dillon. Matt. Rachel Harrison by Matt Dillon. Interview Magazine. Fall 2019. 66.
30. News: Hal. Foster. Smart Objects. Artforum. January 2020. 187.
31. http://www.greenenaftaligallery.com/artist.php?id=5&jumpTo=bio "Rachel Harrison Bio"
32. Web site: Rachel Harrison - The Look of Dress-Separates. March 21, 1997. Greene Naftali.
33. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Patent Pending: Beveled Rasp Sac. May 13, 1999. Greene Naftali.
34. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Perth Amboy. March 23, 2001. Greene Naftali.
35. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Brides and Bases. September 14, 2002. Oakville Galleries.
36. Web site: Milwaukee Art Museum Annual Report 2003. August 31, 2003. Milwaukee Art Museum.
37. Web site: Rachel Harrison – Posh Floored as Ali G Tackles Becks. January 31, 2004. Camden Art Center.
38. Web site: Arndt & Partner History. July 1, 2021. Arndt Fine Art.
39. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Lakta/Latkas. May 8, 2004. Greene Naftali.
40. http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/198 "New Work: Rachel Harrison"
41. Web site: Rachel Harrison with Scott Lyall - When Hangover becomes Form. March 31, 2006. Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver.
42. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Checking the Tires, Not To Mention The Marble Nude. May 5, 2006. Galerie Christian Nagel.
43. Web site: Rachel Harrison - If I Did It. February 23, 2007. Greene Naftali.
44. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Voyage of the Beagle. April 28, 2007. Migros Museum.
45. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Lay of the Land. July 5, 2008. Le Consortium.
46. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Sunny Side Up. November 19, 2008. Galerie Meyer Kainer.
47. http://www.bard.edu/ccs/read/publications/rachel-harrison-consider-the-lobster-and-other-essays/ "Rachel Harrison: Consider the Lobster"
48. http://www.portikus.de/exhibition_163.html?&L=1 "Portikus Exhibition 163 Rachel Harrison HAYCATION"
49. http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/rachel-harrison-conquest-of-the-useless "Rachel Harrison Conquest of the Useless"
50. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Asdfjkl;. May 26, 2010. Regen Projects.
51. Web site: Rachel Harrison with Scott Lyall - Double Yolk. March 20, 2011. Galerie Christan Nagel.
52. Web site: Rachel Harrison – Exhibitions – Greene Naftali. www.greenenaftaligallery.com. 2016-03-04.
53. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Villeperdue. April 10, 2013. Galerie Meyer Kainer.
54. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Fake Titel: Turquoise-Stained Altars for Burger Turner. September 6, 2013. S.M.A.K..
55. Web site: The Great Hall Exhibitions Archive: Rachel Harrison - Who Gave You This Number. April 27, 2014. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
56. Web site: Rachel Harrison – Exhibitions – Regen Projects. www.regenprojects.com. 7 April 2015 . 2016-03-04.
57. Web site: Gloria: Robert Rauschenberg & Rachel Harrison. July 1, 2015. Cleveland Museum of Art.
58. Web site: Rachel Harrison – Perth Amboy. March 19, 2016. The Museum of Modern Art.
59. Web site: Rachel Harrison – Depth Jump to Second Box. April 29, 2016. Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler.
60. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Prasine. April 28, 2017. Greene Naftali.
61. Web site: Rachel Harrison - House of Dolphins. June 1, 2018. Rat Hole Gallery.
62. Web site: Rachel Harrison Drawings. March 6, 2020. Greene Naftali.
63. Web site: New Photography 14: Jeanne Dunning, Olafur Eliasson, Rachel Harrison, Sam Taylor-Wood. October 15, 1999. The Museum of Modern Art.
64. Web site: Whitney Biennial 2002. March 7, 2002. Whitney Museum of American Art.
65. Web site: La Biennale di Venezia - History: Recent years. June 15, 2003. La Biennale di Venezia.
66. Web site: 2004 Carnegie International. October 9, 2004. Carnegie Museum of Art.
67. Web site: 4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art: "Of Mice and Men". March 25, 2006. KW Institute for Contemporary Art.
68. http://whitney.org/www/2008biennial/www/?section=artists&page=artist_harrison "Artist Rachel Harrison"
69. Web site: Altermodern: Tate Triennial 2009. February 3, 2009. Tate.
70. Web site: The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today. August 1, 2010. The Museum of Modern Art.
71. Web site: Blues for Smoke. October 12, 2012. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
72. Web site: Rachel Harrison - Nasher XChange: Moore to the Point. October 19, 2013. Nasher Sculpture Center.
73. Web site: Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age. November 14, 2015. Museum Brandhorst.
74. Web site: Ordinary Pictures. February 27, 2016. Walker Art Center.
75. Web site: Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy. September 18, 2018. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
76. Web site: Jay DeFeo : The Ripple Effect.
77. Web site: Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019. June 22, 2019. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
78. Web site: Marcel Duchamp: The Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection. June 19, 2020. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
79. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Art Institute of Chicago. July 1, 2021.
80. Web site: Blanton Museum of Art Online Collections Database. collection.blantonmuseum.org. 4 March 2016.
81. Web site: Hans Haacke with Sculpture. Cleveland Museum of Art. 24 March 2018. en.
82. Web site: Rachel Harrison, Reno (2004). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. July 1, 2021.
83. Web site: Rachel Harrison, Pretty Discreet (1999). Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College. July 1, 2021.
84. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. July 1, 2021.
85. Web site: Rachel Harrison, The Fifth Shade (2004). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. July 1, 2021.
86. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/696801 "Rachel Harrison, Valid Like Salad (2012)"
87. Web site: Rachel Harrison, The Fifth Shade (2004). Los Angeles County Museum of Art. July 1, 2021.
88. Web site: Rachel Harrison, The Duck Hunter (2012). Moderna Museet. 1 July 2021.
89. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=7855 "The Collection Rachel Harrison"
90. https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/rachel-harrison "Rachel Harrison – Collection Online"
91. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Tate. July 1, 2021.
92. Web site: Rachel Harrison. Walker Art Center. July 1, 2021.
93. https://whitney.org/artists/7414?q%5Bs%5D=sort_date%20desc "Whitney Museum of American Art: Rachel Harrison"
94. https://herbalpertawards.org/artist/2010/rachel-harrison "Herb Alpert Award in the Arts 2010: Rachel Harrison"
95. Pogrebin, Robin. "Calder Prize Awarded to American Artist", The New York Times, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
96. https://www.anonymouswasawoman.org/previous-recipients "Anonymous Was A Woman Award: Past Recipients"
97. Web site: Gold List Special Edition #5 .
98. https://www.canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/rump_steak_with_onions "Rump Steak with Onions by Rachel Harrison"