Jenny Holzer: Neo-Conceptualist
Monday, September 16, 2019 at 8:00AM 
Jenny Holzer - Installation in Lobby of 7 World Trade Center - 2006 - New York (click photo for larger image)Jenny Holzer (born 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick Falls, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public. In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. Neo-conceptual art represents a re-emergence of that approach.
Holzer received a BFA in printmaking and painting from Ohio University, Athens, Georgia, in 1972, and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, in 1977. “Holzer then moved to New York and enrolled in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. That same year, she created her first text-based works, initiating an ongoing artistic investigation of language in which she presents both original and appropriated texts to deconstruct how personal and political meaning are created in Western culture’s patriarchal, consumer-oriented society.” (Guggenheim)
Holzer belongs to the generation of artists that emerged around 1980, looking for new ways to make narrative or commentary an implicit part of visual objects. The public dimension is integral to Holzer's work. Her large-scale installations have included advertising billboards, projections on buildings and other architectural structures, and illuminated electronic displays. Text-based light projections have been central to Holzer's work since 1996. As of 2010, her LED signs have become more sculptural. Holzer is no longer the author of her texts, and in the ensuing years, she returned to her roots by painting.