November 6, 2025 — Invalid date
Rirkrit Tiravanija presents recent works that build upon an ongoing body of work referencing Canadian American artist Philip Guston’s paintings on American newspapers in the 1970s. Using tree lacquer and oil, Tiravanija adapts the concept for contemporary times by painting on editions of The New York Times that feature Donald Trump’s election and inauguration. The series reflects his broader practice which is grounded in relational aesthetics and approaches art as a catalyst for social commentary and change.
About
Since the 1990s, Rirkrit Tiravanija (b. 1961, Buenos Aires, Argentina) has aligned his artistic production with an ethic of social engagement, often inviting viewers to inhabit and activate his work.
His work as been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including: Gropius Bau, Berlin; MoMA PS1, Queens, New York (2023, traveled to LUMA Arles, France 2024); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2023, 2022); Institute of Contemporary Arts London (permanent installation), Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. (2019), the National Gallery of Singapore (2018); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2016); the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2015), the Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2010), the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2009), the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Serpentine Gallery in London (2005), as well as the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (2004). Tiravanija's work has been recognized with numerous awards and grants including the 2010 Absolut Art Award, the 2004 Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum, and the 2003 Smithsonian American Art Museum's Lucelia Artist Award.
Tiravanija lives and works in New York, Berlin, and Chiang Mai. Tiravanija is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts at Columbia University, and is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians, and curators. Tiravanija is also President of an educationalecological project known as The Land Foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and is part of a collective alternative space called VER in Bangkok.
