AGNES DENES

“I was probably the first artist in what’s now Soho. I had my studio at 93 Crosby Street from the late sixties until got evicted and moved to Broadway in 1980.” — Agnes Denes

Agnes Denes, a primary figure among the concept-based artists who emerged in the 1960's and 1970's, is internationally known for works created in a wide range of mediums. Investigating science, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, poetry, history, and music, Denes's artistic practice is distinctive in terms of its aesthetics and engagement with socio-political ideas.

As a pioneer of environmental art, she created Rice/Tree/Burial in 1968 in Sullivan County, New York, acknowledged as the first site-specific piece with ecological concerns. In 1982, with the support of the Public Art Fund she planted and harvested two acres of wheat in the financial district in Lower Manhattan creating the internationally acclaimed Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Lower Manhattan, which has been called "one of Land art's great transgressive masterpieces." Among her many other achievements is Tree Mountain–A Living Time Capsule, a monumental earthwork, reclamation project and the first man-made virgin forest, in Ylöjärvi, in western Finland. She is currently proposing A Forest for New York, envisioned to occupy the 120 acres of barren land that comprises the Edgemere landfill in Queens.

Born in Hungary in 1931, Agnes Denes was raised in Sweden and educated in the US. She has completed public and private commissions in North and South America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and participated in more than 600 exhibitions at galleries and museums throughout the world including, among others, solo shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1974); the ICA, London (1979); the Kunsthalle Nürnburg (1982); the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY (1992); Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA (2003); the Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary (2008); the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA (2012); and FirstSite, Colchester, UK (2013). Her work has also been featured in such international surveys as the Biennale of Sydney (1976); Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany (1977); the Venice Biennale (1978), and Documenta 14, Kassel and Athens (2017). Her works are represented in the collections of an extensive list of major institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Denes is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and four grants from the New York State Council on the Arts; the DAAD Fellowship, Berlin, Germany (1978); the American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award (1985); M.I.T's highly prestigious Eugene McDermott Achievement Award "In Recognition of Major Contribution to the Arts" (1990); the Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome (1998); the Watson Trans-disciplinary Art Award from Carnegie Mellon University (1999); the Anonymous Was a Woman Award (2007); the Ambassador's Award for Cultural Diplomacy for Strengthening the Friendship between the US and the Republic of Hungary through Excellence in Contemporary Art (2008); a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2015). She will be an Arts Innovation, Impact honoree at The Phillips Collection Gala this spring in Washington, DC.

Agnes Denes holds honorary doctorates from Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin and Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania and fellowships at the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T. She has lectured extensively throughout the US and abroad and participates in global conferences. She is the author of six books and is featured in numerous other publications on a wide range of subjects in art and the environment.

A highly critically acclaimed, comprehensive survey including newly commissioned sculptures by the artist is on view at The Shed, New York through March 22, 2020.

Agnes Denes is represented by Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects, New York.

Please visit the artist's website and read her full bio