Sanford Biggers Explained

Sanford Biggers
Birth Place:United States
Field:Film, video, sculpture, music

Sanford Biggers is an American interdisciplinary artist who works in film and video, installation, sculpture, music, and performance.[1] A Los Angeles native, he has lived and worked in New York City since 1999.[2]

Life and education

Biggers was born in Los Angeles, California.[3] He is the son of a neurosurgeon, his father, and of a teacher, his mother.[4] He received a BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1998.[3] Biggers says that due to a lack of art major classes at Morehouse, he was required to take the majority of his classes at the all-women Spelman College.[5]

Work

Biggers first received critical attention when his collaborative work with David Ellis, Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II, was included in the exhibition "Freestyle", curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001.[6] [7] [8] Since, his works have been presented internationally including the Tate Modern in London, the Renaissance Society in Chicago,[9] Prospect 1 in New Orleans and the Whitney Biennial, the Kitchen and Performa 07 (curated by Roselee Goldberg) in New York.[1] [8] [10] Biggers's art frequently references African-American ethnography, hip hop music, Buddhism, African spirituality, Indo-European Vodoun, jazz, Afrofuturism, urban culture and icons from Americana.[11] [12] [13] [14] He has said that he places "no hierarchy on chronology, references or media"[15] and his work has been characterized by meditation and improvisation.[14] He says his themes are "meant to broaden and complicate our read on American history." He also uses syncretism to highlight the interconnectedness of seemly disparate cultural practices.[11] [12] In order to make the viewer an active element, Biggers often turns his sculptures into performances.[15] Having spent most of his life playing piano, this performative element frequently takes the form of music.[13] He has collaborated on music projects with Saul Williams a.k.a. Niggy Tardust, Esthero, Martin Luther McCoy, Imani Uzuri, Rich Medina,[15] and Jahi Sundance.[13]

In 2014, Biggers departed from his typical medium by painting on quilts that were given to him by the descendants of slave owners.[16]

Biggers is Affiliate Faculty at the Virginia Commonwealth University Sculpture and Expanded Media program, and was a visiting scholar at Harvard University's VES Department in 2009.[17] [18] He was previously an assistant professor at Columbia University's Visual Arts program.[19]

Recognition

In 2019, Biggers was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame.[20] In 2010, Biggers was awarded the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, a two-year residency and commission of new work.[21] The commission formed the centerpiece of Sanford Biggers: Codex, a 2012 solo exhibition at the Ringling Museum[22] curated by Matthew McLendon.

In 2009 he received the William H. Johnson Prize[23] and was one of the three finalists for the inaugural Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, the largest juried prize in the world to go to an individual visual artist. Biggers in 2008 received the Creative Capital Award in the discipline of Visual Arts.[24] Biggers was an Eyebeam artist-in-residence in 2000.[25] [26]

In 2018 Biggers was interviewed by Vinson Cunningham, a writer for the New Yorker magazine, about his impact on contemporary political art and his role in the Black Lives Matter movement.[27] Also in 2018 Biggers was given an art award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[28]

In 2021, Biggers received the 26th Annual Heinz Award for the Arts.[29]

Exhibitions

Source unless otherwise noted:[30]

Solo

"Sanford Biggers" - Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. September 7 - December 30, 2018

Group

Collections

Biggers' work is held in the following permanent collections:

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://213.121.208.204/modern/exhibitions/illuminations/artist_sanford.shtm Modern Exhibitions
  2. Web site: Sanford Biggers/Notions . Schachter Rove . Kenny . 2010-07-12 . rovetv.net . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110102123226/http://www.rovetv.net/sb-press.html . 2011-01-02 .
  3. Web site: The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers. Vinson. Cunningham. 8 January 2018. www.newyorker.com.
  4. Web site: The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers. newyorker.com. 8 January 2018. 2021-03-10.
  5. Web site: On the Record With ... Sanford Biggers. BET.com. 2015-11-11. Biggers. Keith. Sanford. Amy Elisa. 2014-02-20. Sanford Biggers.
  6. Lesage, Dieter & Wudtke, Ina. "Black Sound White Cube." Löcker Verlag (June 11, 2010).
  7. Web site: Bleckner . Ross . BOMB Magazine: Rashid Johnson by Sanford Biggers . Bombsite.com . 2010-07-15.
  8. Web site: Yablonsky . Linda . ARTnews . ARTnews . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101025200928/http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=1096 . 2010-10-25 .
  9. Web site: Sanford Biggers at the Renaissance Society. dead. https://archive.today/20120908132651/http://www.renaissancesociety.org/site/Exhibitions/Intro.The-Here-and-Now.35.html. 2012-09-08.
  10. Web site: / archive . Artforum.com . 2010-07-15.
  11. Web site: BAM/PFA - Art Exhibitions - Sanford Biggers / MATRIX 197 . Bampfa.berkeley.edu . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100611215120/http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/exhibition/197 . 2010-06-11 .
  12. Web site: Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum . • Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum || EXHIBITIONS • . Sbcaf.org . 2010-07-15.
  13. Web site: WM | whitehot magazine of contemporary art | April 2010, Interview with Sanford Biggers . 2010-07-15.
  14. Web site: Bachelors Degree Program . Vcu.edu . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100707093732/http://www.vcu.edu/arts/paintingprintmaking/dept/solventSpace.html . 2010-07-07 .
  15. Web site: Sanford Biggers - Time Out New York . 2010-07-15.
  16. Web site: MAM Art Talks Thursday : Sanford Biggers - Baristanet. Baristanet. 2015-11-11. en-US. Gilmore. Georgette. 2014-11-14.
  17. Web site: Sanford Biggers Public Art at Harvard . Ofa.fas.harvard.edu . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100627180150/http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/visualarts/sanford_pr.php . 2010-06-27 .
  18. Web site: VCU Sculpture + Extended Media . Vcu.edu . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100528111820/http://www.vcu.edu/arts/sculpture/dept/news/news_archive.html . 2010-05-28 .
  19. Web site: Visual Arts Faculty - Columbia University School of the Arts Graduate MFA Programs . Pp.cc.columbia.edu . 2010-07-15 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090107222448/http://wwwapp.cc.columbia.edu/art/app/arts/visual_arts/faculty.jsp . January 7, 2009 .
  20. Web site: NYFA 2019 Hall of Fame Event . 29 January 2019 . 2019-03-28.
  21. Web site: Greenfield Winners. www.greenfieldprize.org. 2016-04-05.
  22. Web site: Sanford Biggers: Codex. www.ringling.org. 2016-04-05.
  23. Web site: Sanford Biggers Wins 2009 William H. Johnson Prize. www.artforum.com. 2016-04-05.
  24. http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/23
  25. Web site: Sanford Biggers eyebeam.org. eyebeam.org. 2016-01-28.
  26. Web site: iniva: Sanford Biggers. www.iniva.org. 2016-02-01.
  27. Cunningham. Vinson. The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers:An under-sung artist upends received ideas about race and history.. The New Yorker. 2018-02-04. en. 2018-01-08.
  28. Web site: 2018 Ceremonial Exhibition: Work by New Members and Recipients of Awards – American Academy of Arts and Letters. artsandletters.org. 2018-05-29.
  29. Web site: The Heinz Awards :: Sanford Biggers. 2021-11-18. www.heinzawards.net.
  30. News: Exhibitions . Sanford Biggers official website. December 5, 2017. en-US.
  31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWVvljDR_tA "Blossom" by Sanford Biggers, 2007
  32. https://brooklynmuseum.tumblr.com/post/622171836440035328/blossom-by-sanford-biggers-is-a-monumental Brooklyn Museum
  33. Web site: 2018 Ceremonial Exhibition: Work by New Members and Recipients of Awards – American Academy of Arts and Letters. artsandletters.org. 29 May 2018.
  34. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.studiomuseum.org.
  35. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.brooklynmuseum.org.
  36. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.moma.org.
  37. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.whitney.org.
  38. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.mcachicago.org.
  39. Web site: Borne by the River . 2023-02-24 . www.metmuseum.org.
  40. Web site: Semaphore . 2023-02-24 . www.collections.artsmia.org.
  41. Web site: Sanford Biggers . 2023-02-24 . www.walkerart.org.
  42. Web site: SANFORD BIGGERS . 2023-02-24 . www.phillipscollection.org.

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