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Jack Pierson

Jack Pierson employs photography, collage, sculptural assemblage and installation in pursuit of love, longing, kinship, poetry, celebration, youth, fantasy and identity. The artist’s mode of non-hierarchical cultural compilation and a process of impulse-led editing allows Pierson to create personal and universal narratives across his multidisciplinary practice. Emerging from the 1980s milieu of the Boston School of documentarian photographers, Pierson was instead drawn into a world of gendered, punk-influenced performativity, and was greatly influenced by the more tactile work of his friend, Mark Morrisroe. 

Pierson's move to New York via stays in Miami and Los Angeles saw the evolution of staging in his work. Depicting recollections of autobiographical nights out and days in the studio, he constructed melancholic sets of half-remembered experiences and occasional, ironic gestures of self-portraiture. Pierson’s collagistic approach also applies to his photography and ongoing accumulations of imagery, which evoke shared notions of reminiscence and desire. His first word sculptures, composed of discarded signage letters removed from their intended context, were found on the streets of New York's East Village and introduced a multiplicity of meaning into Pierson’s practice. They question what is staged and what is casual, a theme that is unquestionably his own, in which material, object, subject, fragment and life all coalesce.

Jack Pierson was born in 1960 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He lives and works in New York and in California. He graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1984 where he participated in the Studio for Interrelated Media, one of the earliest formal academic programs for the study of performance art. Recent solo presentations include Jack Pierson at Museo Ettore Fico Torino, Italy (2021); Jack Pierson: 5 Shows from the ‘90s at Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, USA (2017); and Jack Pierson at CAC Málaga, Málaga, Spain (2009). Select group exhibitions include High Desert Test Sites 2022 (HDTS 2022): The Searchers curated by Iwona Blazwick at Joshua Tree, CA, USA (2022); Any distance between us at RISD Museum, Providence, RI, USA (2021); Photography’s Last Century: The Collection of Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA (2020); and Be Seen: Portrait Photography Since Stonewall at Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, USA (2019).

Pierson’s work is found in major public collections, including Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA; CAPC Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA, and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, USA.

 

Recent and upcoming projects

’Stories Artists Tell’ at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Ongoing

'Nan Goldin and Jack Pierson', ICA Boston, Boston, MA, Ongoing

'Hollywood, Florida,' /08/ at Galería Elba Benitez, Madrid, August 1 – August 31, 2024

‘The Myth of Normal, A Celebration of Authentic Expression’ at the MassArt Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA, 5 October – 19 May 2024

‘Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines’ at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA, 17 November –  31 March 2024

He goes to work

Jack Pierson
He goes to work

1991
Ektacolor print
76.2 x 76.2 cm
30 x 30 in

REAL LIFE

Jack Pierson
REAL LIFE

2023
Metal, Paint, and Plastic
271.8 x 335.3 x 10.2 cm
107 x 132 x 4 in

Idaho

Jack Pierson
Idaho

2023
Folded pigment print
152.4 x 203.2 cm
60 x 80 in

Untitled (Andre)

Jack Pierson
Untitled (Andre)

1990
C-prints
Dimensions variable

Diamond Life

Jack Pierson
Diamond Life

1990
Table, chair, record player, record albums, books, ashtray, coffee cup, miscellaneous, linoleum flooring, and painted wall
96 x 60 x 48 in
243.8 x 152.4 x 121.9 cm

Private Collection, New York

Kodak Composition

Jack Pierson
Kodak Composition

2023
Banker pibs, ink, Kodak photo boxes, marker, masking tape, packing tape, painter's tape
320 x 167.6 x 2.5 cm
126 x 66 x 1 in

Hope Dreams You

Jack Pierson
Hope Dreams You

1991
Graphite on paper
14 x 11 in
35.6 x 27.9 cm

Private Collection, Los Angeles

Silver Jackie

Jack Pierson
Silver Jackie

1991
Mylar, painted wood, and Christmas lights
96 x 48 x 48 in 
243.8 x 121.9 x 121.9 cm

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; gift of Alan Hergott and Curt Shepard

POMEGRANATES

Jack Pierson
POMEGRANATES

2023
Enamel, Metal, and Paint
47.6 x 335.3 x 4.4 cm
18 3/4 x 132 x 1 3/4 in

Will you still love me tomorrow?

Jack Pierson
Will you still love me tomorrow?

1994
Painted wood, glass, linen sheets, graphite on paper, paperback books, stones, shells, cigarette butts, lighter, comb, cup hook, and padlock with key
43 x 23 x 23.5 in
109.8 x 60.8 x 59.3 cm

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Barbara and Eugene Schwartz
 

Khadim

Jack Pierson
Khadim

2023
Pigment print
203.2 x 152.4 cm
80 x 60 in
Framed: 212.1 x 161.3 x 6.4 cm
Framed: 83 1/2 x 63 1/2 x 2 1/2 in

Self-Portrait #26

Jack Pierson
Self-Portrait #26

2005
Digital pigment print
53.5 x 43 in
135.9 x 109.2 cm

ELVIS

Jack Pierson
ELVIS

2008
Metal, wood and plastic
44 x 129.5 x 4.5 in 
111.8 x 328.9 x 11.4 cm

Private Collection, New York

Lucian

Jack Pierson
Lucian

Pigment print
203.2 x 152.4 cm
80 x 60 in
Framed: 212.1 x 161.3 x 6.4 cm
Framed: 83 1/2 x 63 1/2 x 2 1/2 in

LOCK-SCHEME

Jack Pierson
LOCK-SCHEME

2008
Plastic
87 x 31 x 1 in
221 x 78.7 x 2.5 cm

Private Collection, New York

ABSTRACT #18

Jack Pierson
ABSTRACT #18

2009
Metal
60 x 39 1/4 x 1 in
152.4 x 99.7 x 2.5 cm

Baby

Jack Pierson
Baby

2021
Pigment print
203.2 x 152.4 cm
80 x 60 in
Framed: 212.1 x 161.3 x 6.4 cm
Framed: 83 1/2 x 63 1/2 x 2 1/2 in

A DAY JUST LIKE TODAY

Jack Pierson
A DAY JUST LIKE TODAY

2014
Wood, metal, plastic
113 x 78 in
287 x 198.1 cm

Blue

Jack Pierson
Blue

2021
Banker pins, cardboard, paper, and spray paint
100 x 65 x 3 in
254 x 165.1 x 7.6 cm

Exhibitions

  1. Jack Pierson - past exhibition

    Jack Pierson

    24 May – 3 August 2024

  2. Jack Pierson: Pomegranates - past exhibition

    Jack Pierson: Pomegranates

    7 September – 14 October 2023

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