Early Work (1976-1996)
ClampArt, New York
20.02.2014 - 29.03.2014
ClampArt is pleased to announce “Nancy Burson: Composites”—the gallery’s second solo exhibition of the artist’s work.
© First and Second Beauty Composites (Left: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe. Right: Jane Fonda, Jacqueline Bisset, Diane Keaton, Brooke Shields, Meryl Streep)
Since the inception of her career as an artist, Nancy Burson has been interested in the interaction of art and science. In collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Burson began to produce computer-generated composite portraits in the late 1970s to early 1980s. The work was informed by centuries of social, scientific, and pseudo-scientific study of the human face. However, Burson’s attitude toward science was always laced with irony and a keen awareness of the absurdities embedded in many historic concepts, such as race and gender, which we take for granted today.
© Androgyny (6 Men + 6 Women)
“Composites” explores Burson’s pioneering early work with digital technologies—now ubiquitous in photography. Digitally combining and manipulating images of often well-known individuals, including movie stars and world leaders, Burson examines political issues, gender, race, and standards of beauty. In other photographs, Burson creates playful, but unnerving, simulacra of subjects that could never exist in the real world that the medium has traditionally indexed.
© He With She and She With He
Nancy Burson’s work is shown in museums and galleries worldwide, and has been included in major exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City; the International Center of Photography, New York City; New Museum, New York City; Venice Biennale, Venice; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas; and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. “Seeing and Believing,” Burson’s traveling retrospective which originated at the Grey Art Gallery at New York University in New York City in 2002, was nominated for Best Solo Show of the Year in New York City by the International Association of Art Critics.
© Warhead I ((Reagan 55%, Brezhnev 45%, Thatcher less than 1%, Mitterand less than 1%, Deng less than 1%)
Best known for her pioneering work in morphing technology (which now enables law enforcement officials to locate missing children and adults), Burson has recently received media attention for her Human Race Machine, which allows viewers to see themselves as a different race. Currently there are several Human Race Machines touring the campuses of universities across the United States. As a photographer, writer, and inventor, Burson has lectured and taught worldwide, including a visiting professorship at Harvard University and an adjunct position at New York University.
In the last few years she has collaborated with Creative Time and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council completing several important public art projects. These projects have included the billboard “There’s No Gene For Race” and the poster/postcard project “Focus on Peace.” The LMCC’s “Focus on Peace” project distributed 30,000 postcards and 7,000 posters around the site of the World Trade Center to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. Burson’s recent public art project, “Looking up,” was co-sponsored by the LMCC and Deutsche Bank and located within the 60 Wall Street Atrium, as well as the storefront directly outside.
© Nancy Burson | ClampArt