Born 1954 in Galesburg, IL
Lives and works in Cambridge, MA and Los Angeles, CA
Stephen Prina works in a variety of media including that installation, painting, sculpture, film and musical performance. Through these various mediums, Prina examines the cultural production and consumption process by making pre-existing works of art his regular points of departure. Without discarding their original meaning, Prina re-arranges and re-presents ideas to bring new possible signification to the fore.
This deconstructive approach, which poses questions around authenticity, authorship and originality, has led his practice to be described as “post-conceptualist”. His autonomous but yet thematically related bodies of work form a continuous series, in which elements often get revisited over the course of his career. Prina’s re-contextualisation forms a framework of references that merge history with the contemporary, deftly drawing connections and challenging assumptions about representation and the role of art objects.
Prina has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, including at Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2020); Petzel Gallery, New York (2019); Museo Madre, Naples (2017); Museum Kurhaus Kleve (2016); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2015) Secession, Vienna (2011); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2013); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne (2014); Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2010); Bergen Kunsthall, (2009); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2008); The Art Institute of Chicago (2002); Kunsthalle Basel (2002); Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main (2000) among many others. His work has also been extensively shown in group shows, such as at the MUMOK, Vienna (2018); Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018); Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2016); Museum Ludwig, Vienna (2015); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston (2013); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2008); The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2000). Prina’s work is held in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.