Born 1973 in East Jerusalem
Lives and works in New York
Seth Price’s multi-disciplinary work centers on the themes of distribution and circulation. Strategies of dissemination are the points of departure for his seminal essay, fittingly named Dispersion, which called for the dematerialization of art and made him a star in the early 2000s. His “never-ending” essay-film Redistribution gained him further recognition. The documentary-style film is a surrealistic, meandering narrative that confronts art-world conventions and questions our relationship to images and their circulation in contemporary society. The film is constantly re-cut by Price for subsequent screenings, forming an infinite work in progress that is also an ongoing exploration of the nature of film-making and story-telling.
His experiments with materials are conducted through a range of media including installation, sculpture, painting, collage and drawing — resulting for example in closeup photographs of skin mounted on light-boxes, reliefs of knotted ropes and bomber jackets, or even cast polystyrene on canvas that are seemingly both two- and three-dimensional. Dimensionality is in fact a key feature, as Price investigates what he calls the “flatness of images” in the digital age. His choice of materials does not only serve an aesthetic or formal function but is of cultural and symbolic significance. Price frequently makes use of hyper-industrial materials and advanced technology in conjunction with natural, organic elements — human and squid skin being emblematic examples. Through these varied media, he investigates the body and the self as mediated by technology, reflecting the residual effects of the rapidly developing image-based age we live in.
Since the beginning of his career in the early 2000s, Price has resisted categorization and is constantly pushing into new territories, exploring obscure mediums such as electronic music, fashion, computer screensavers or philosophical essays. Writing has always been central to Price’s practice, and he has published dozens of books.
Price has shown extensively throughout the world, with solo shows including Aspen Art Museum (2019); MoMA PS1, New York (2018); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2017); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2017); 365 S. Mission Rd, Los Angeles (2016); Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (2009); Kunsthalle Zürich (2007) among others. His numerous group shows include Haus der Kunst, Munich (2020); de la Cruz Collection, Miami (2020); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2019); S.M.A.K., Gent (2018); Fridericianum, Kassel (2016); Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris (2016); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012) and many more. His work is included in the collections of the Kunsthaus Zürich; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Price’s video works have been screened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Britain, London; Rotterdam Film Festival; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Eyebeam, New York; and Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement, Saint-Gervais, Geneva, among others.