Stephen Prina
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Biography
Born in 1954 in Galesburg, IL
Lives and works in Cambridge, MA and Los Angeles, CA
Stephen Prina’s oeuvre is diverse, including 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.
The first in-depth exhibition focusing on Prina's performances will open at MoMA, New York in September 2025. Prina has has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide at JUBG, Cologne (2023); 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 Familienbande, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2019); 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).
Stephen Prina has also participated at the Whitney Biennale in 2008, documenta IX in 1992, the Venice Biennale in 1990.
Prina’s work is held in the collections of the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard, Hudson, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Mamco, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwing, Vienna; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Tate, London; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
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Regardless of each particular work’s guise and form, they all seem to concern the articulation of the resulting resonances and multiple overtones of difference in a contextual flux. The ostensible subject of Prina’s work is the ways the work of others is culturally contextualized, though importantly and sometimes literally, Prina’s own voice emerges in their midst.
– Dominic Eichler, Frieze
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Works
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Stephen PrinaExquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet222 of 556Dame aux Éventails (Nina de Callias) (Woman with Fans) 1874Jeu de Paume, Louvre, Paris,, February 4, 2011left: 113.5 x 166.5 cm / 44.7 x 65.6 inches
right: 66 x 83 cm / 26 x 32.7 inches -
Stephen PrinaExquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet 252 of 556, Enfant dans les Fleurs (Jacques Hoschedé) II, (Child among the Flowers) II, 1876, Whereabouts Unknown, October 8, 2017Two parts:
Left: ink wash on rag, barrier paper
66,2 x 83 cm / 26.6 x 32.7 inches
Right: offset lithography on paper
66 x 83 cm / 26 x 32.7 inches -
Stephen PrinaUntitled, Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet 253 of 556, Jeune Femme dans les Fleurs (Young Woman among the Flowers), 1876, Paul Steiner Collection, Berlin, 2017Black cord and brass escutcheon
Left: 65,5 x 81 cm / 25.8 x 31.9 inches
Right: 66 x 83 cm / 26 x 32.7 inches -
Stephen PrinaUntitled, Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet 255 of 556, Femme au Jardin (Woman in a Garden), 1876?, Formerly in Berlin, Liebermann Collection, 2017Black cord and brass escutcheon pins
Left: 126 x 175 cm / 49.6 x 70 inches
Right: 66 x 83 cm / 26 x 32.7 inches -
Stephen PrinaAs He Remembered It, Dressing Room Category Hiler, Dressing Room (Powder Room), No. 1, 2011Acrylic enamel on PU coating on poplar plywood and metal214 x 231 x 185 cm
84.3 x 91 x 72.8 inches -
Stephen PrinaAs He Remembered It, Kitchen Category Harris, Kitchen, No. 1Harris, Kitchen, No. 2Hiler, Kitchen, No. 3Hiler, Kitchen, No. 4, 2011Acrylic enamel on PU coating on poplar plywood, linen and metal244 x 323 x 84 cm Harris Kitchen No 1
203 x 322 x 56 cm Harris Kitchen No 2
122 x 292 x 31 cm Hiler Kitchen No 3
259 x 262 x 166 cm Hiler Kitchen No 4 -
Stephen PrinaBlind No. 7, Nineteen-foot Ceiling or Lower (Raw Umber/Burnt Umber Light/BurntSienna/Raw Sienna), 2011Acrylic on linen, window-blind mechanism3 panels, each:
228 x 40.87 inches
579.12 x 103.82 cm -
Stephen PrinaBlind No. 8, Nineteen-foot Ceiling or Lower (Carbon Black/Bone Black), 2011Acrylic on linen, window-blind mechanism2 panels, each:
228 x 40.87 inches
579.12 x 103.82 cm -
Stephen PrinaTHE WAY HE ALWAYS WANTED IT VII, 2011Griffin 100% natural silk bead cord with needle attached, 35mm film frames,
Czech pressed-glass beads42,5 m length, installation dimensions variable -
Stephen PrinaUntitledExquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet227 of 556Baigneuses en Seine(Bathers in the Seine)1874?Museu de Arte, Sào Paulo, March 7, 2011Black cord, 8 nails with golden headleft: 132 x 98 cm / 52 x 38.6 inches
right: 66 x 83 cm / 26 x 32.7 inches -
Stephen Prina5 parts:PUSH COMES TO LOVE: Bright BluePUSH COMES TO LOVE: Untitled, 1999Photo screenprint with acrylic and acrylic enamel on canvas350 ml of spray paintdimensions variable151 x 121 cmPUSH COMES TO LOVE: Golden Yellow, 1999Photo screenprint with acrylic a
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Exhibitions
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External Exhibitions
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Press
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Publications