Database -- View Entry The entry of a selected artist from the database Database Entry To reach the Artist Page for the artist shown below, click on the artist's name or thumbnail image Matthew Barney Biography: In 1991, Matthew Barney exploded onto the New York art scene with all the force of his often insanely physical videos. Just eight years later, a New York Times article dared to crown him "the most important artist of his generation." The occasion was the release of "Cremaster," one of a cycle of five films named after the “thermometer” muscles that retract the testicles when things get chilly. It’s hard to say just what kind of artist Matthew Barney is. Born in San Francisco but raised in Boise, Idaho (where the first scene of "Cremaster” is set), Barney grew up as the all-American guy, attending Yale on a football scholarship. He even capitalized on his good looks, paying his way through school by modeling. Though Ivy League football seems to have little to do with Barney’s work, it’s actually quite relevant in its insistence on absurd masculinity. His New York gallery debut consisted of nudity, sporting equipment greased with Vaseline, and spelunking. Visitors to the opening of his show were greeted with videos of a naked Barney climbing the gallery walls -- plus the jellied footprints left behind to prove it. Beginning in 1994, Barney embarked on his defining work, the first of the “Cremaster” series (which was actually entitled “Cremaster 4”). It was an ambitious hybridization of video and film, each one-hour piece including fantastic sculptures, photographs, and drawings. Barney spent about $1 million of his own money on each installment of the series, earning it back through the sale of sculptures that were used as props in the films, as well as books and installations derived from them. He claims that the sculptures -- a weight bench made of petroleum jelly, dumbbells made of tapioca -- are just as important as the videos they appear in. Barney’s films are wordless and packed with cryptic, relentlessly cross-referencing, often autobiographical symbols. Obsessed with sexual biology ("Blind Perineum," his first video, takes its title from the tissue between the anus and the genitals), the films tackle subjects such as gender, obsession, transformation, and longing. Barney's detractors characterize him as a sensationalist or Johnny-come-lately Surrealist. Barney calls himself an abstract artist. His supporters call him a man of expansive imagination, who turns the materials of his own experience into a metaphor for artistic creation. Country: United States Birthyear: 1967 Galleries: Solo Exhibitions 2002 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 2000 "CREMASTER 2: The Drones, Exposition", San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1999 “CREMASTER 2: The Drones, Exposition”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis 1998 “March with the anal sadistic warrior”, KunstKanaal, Amsterdam “CREMASTER 5”, Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain “CREMASTER 5” Regen Projects, Los Angeles “CREMASTER 1” Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kunstmuseum 1997 Portikus, “CREMASTER 5,” Frankfurt “CREMASTER 5” Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York “CREMASTER 1” Kunsthalle Wien, Wien, Austria 1996 San Francisco MOMA, San Francisco, “Transexualis and REPRESSIA,” “CREMASTER 1 and CREMASTER 4” 1995 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York The Tate Gallery, London Fondation Cartier, Paris Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Holland, “PACE CAR for the HUBRIS PILL,” traveling to Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux and Kunsthalle Bern (1996), (catalogue) 1994 Regen Projects, Los Angeles, “Portraits from CREMASTER 4” 1991 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, “Matthew Barney: New Work,” Artist’s Book Regen Projects Los Angeles 1989 “Field Dressing" - Payne Whitney Athletic Complex, Yale University, New Haven 1988 “Scab Action" - Video exhibition for the New York City Rainforest Alliance, Open Center, New York Group Exhibitions 2001 "Affecting Invention," Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL "Public Offerings," Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art "Heads and Hands," Decatur House, Washington D.C. "Hypermental. Rampant Reality 1950-2000. From Dali to Koons," Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich 2000 "Staged, Constructions in Comtemporary Photography," Bonkadour Jancou Gallery, New York, NY "Recent Aqusitions," Kunstwerke "MUSEUM" Astrup Fearnly Museet of Moderne Kunste, Oslo "Age of Influence: Reflections in the Mirror of American Culture," Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago "media_city seoul 2000", Contemporary Art and technology Biennial, Seoul, Korea "Voilà, le monde dans la tête", Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, France "What’s New: Recent Acquisitions in Photography", Whitney Museum of American Art, NY "Outbound. Passages from the 90’s", Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston “Picturing the Modern Amazon”, New Museum, NY 1999 Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh “Regarding Beauty”, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington “The Promise of Photography: selected works from the DG Bank collection”, P. S. 1, New York 1998 “Wounds Between Democracy and Redemption in Contemporary Art,” Moderna Museet Stockholm (catalogue) “Scratches on the surface of things,” Museum Boymans van Beuningen “Die Rache der Veronika,” Fotosammlung Lambert, Deichtorhallen Hamburg “Emotion - Young British and American Art from the Goetz Collection,” Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany (catalogue) “+Zone,” Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene d’Alba “Global Vision, New Art from the 90’s - with new acquisation from the Dakis Joannou Collection,” Deste Foundation, Athens “Extensions - Aspects of the Figure,” The Joseloff Gallery, Hartford Art School 1997 “De-Genderism,” Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (catalogue) “Rrose is a Rrose is a Rrose” Gender Performance in Photography, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (catalogue), and Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh “sous le manteau,” Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (catalogue) “Loco-Motion,” Cinema Accademia Dorsoduro, Venice Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France 1996 “Hugo Boss Prize Exhibition,” Guggenheim Museum - SoHo Branch, New York Tenth Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (CREMASTER 1 screening) “Matthew Barney, Tony Oursler and Jeff Wall,” Sammlung Goetz, Munich (catalogue) “Foreign Body,” Museum fur Gegenwartskunst, Basel “Hybrids,” De Appel, Amsterdam (catalogue) “Defining the Nineties: Consensus-making in New York, Miami and Los Angeles,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami “Picasso: a Contempoary Dialog,” Galerie Thaddeaus Ropac, Salzberg, Austria “Passions Privees,” Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris “Faustrecht der Freiheit,” Neues Museum Weserberg, Bremen “Art at Home, Ideal Standard Life,” The Spiral Garden, Tokyo (catalogue) 1995 “Drawing on Chance,” Selections from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York “DASAMERICAS II,” Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, Brasil “Ripple Across the Water 95,” WATARI-UM Museum of Tokyo Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York “ARS ’95,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (catalogue) “The Masculine Masquerade,” MIT List Visual Center, Cambridge “Altered States. American Art in The 90’s,” Forum For Contemporary Art, St. Louis (catalogue) 1994 “Hors Limites,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (catalogue) “Of the Human Condition: Hope and Despair at the End of the Century,” Spiral Gallery, Tokyo “Acting Out - The Body in Video: Then and Now,” Royal College of Art, London “Sammlung Volkmann,” Berlin “The Ossuary,” Luhring Augustine, New York “Drawing on Sculpture,” Cohen Gallery, New York 1993 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York “Exhibition to Benefit the Mapplethorpe Laboratory for AIDS Research,” Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, February 10 - February 20 “Aperto ’93,” 45th Venice Biennale, Venice Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue,” Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut “Action/Performance and the Photograph,” Turner-Krull Galleries, Los Angeles “Works on Paper,” Paula Cooper Gallery, New York 1992 Documenta IX, Kassel, Germany (catalogue) “Périls et Colères,” capc Musée Bourdeaux, Bordeaux, France “Post Human,” FAE Musée d’Art Contemporain, Pully/Lausanne, Switzerland (catalogue). Travelled to Castello di Rivoli; Dete Foundation, Athens; and Deichtorhallen, Hamburg “Matthew Barney, Sam Reveles, and Nancy Rubins,” SteinGladstone Gallery, New York “Spielhölle,” U-Bahn Station, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1991 Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Regen Projects, Los Angeles Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, “ACT-UP Benefit Art Sale” 1990 “Viral Infection: The Body and its Discontents,” Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo Althea Viafora Gallery, New York “Drawings,” Althea Viafora Gallery, New York “Video Library,” Andrea Rosen Gallery Film Screenings 2001 Istanbul Biennial Shiffler Foundation, Ohio 2000 Filmtheater’t Hoogt, (Cremaster 2 & 5) Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich Frac Basse-Normandie, LUX Cinema Kunstlerverein Malkasten, Dusseldorf, (Cremaster2), October 13-14 Image Forum, Tokyo, (Cremaster 2), 3 weeks Filmuseum Munchen, Germany, (Cremaster 1 & 4) Shangai Biennial, China, (Cremaster 4), November 6 Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, (Cremaster 2), October 18 Festival de Rio, Brazil, (Cremaster2), October 5-19 Inter Media City, Seoul, Korea, (CR4), September 2-October31 Cleveland Cinema, (Cremaster 2), September 30 & October 1 Kanazawa Contemporary Art, Japan, (CR 4 & 5), September 9-15 "CREMASTER 2", Stadtkino Basel, Cine y casi cine, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte reina Sofia (Cremaster 2 and Cremaster 4), July 5 /August 4 Art and Culture 2000, Site Santa Fe, New Mexico, (CREMASTER 2), May 23 The Power Plant, Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, (CREMASTER 2), March 3 Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden, (CREMASTER 2), January 28-February 6 Metro, London, (CREMASTER 2), January 27-February 3 Kunsthalle Wien, Filmcasino, (CREMASTER 2), January 26-February 6 Ecole des Beaux Arts, Tours, France, (CREMASTER 5), January 10 Grand Illusion Cinema, Seattle, (CREMASTER2), January 1-13 1999 Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany, (CREMASTER 5, CREMASTER 4), December 6 Hirschhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, (CREMASTER 2), November 18 & 19 Carnegie International, PA, (CREMASTER 2), November 4-March 2000 MCA Chicago, (CREMASTER 2), October 29-30 Film Forum, NY, ( CREMASTER 2), October 13-November 4 Detroit Institute of Art, (CREMASTER 5 & 1), September 30 Pitti Immagine Discovery, Florence, Italy, (CREMASTER 2), September 23-28 Temple Bar Production, Dublin, Ireland, (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4), September 23 Galssel School of Art, Houston, Texas, (CREMASTER 4 & 5) Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, (CREMASTER 5 & 1) Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, (CREMASTER 2), July 8- October 17 IVAM, Valencia, Spain, (CREMASTER 4 & 5), May 22-30 Artspace, New Zealand, (CREMASTER 5), May 6 Temple Bar Production, Dublin, Ireland, (CREMASTER 5), April 29 Austin Museum of Art, Texas, (CREMASTER 5), April 1 Nanjo and Associates, Tokyo, (CREMASTER 1), April 16-25 "Art in the News", Matthew Barney, CAM, University of South Florida, (CREMASTER 5) March 28 International Film Festival, Cleveland (CREMASTER 4, CREMASTER 5), March 23. 1998 Slamdance Film Festival, Park City Utah (CREMASTER 5), January 21 Kunsthalle Wien (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4) at Filmcasino, Vienna, January 22 Rotterdam International Film Festival (CREMASTER 5, March of the Anal Sadistic Warrior), January 28 - February 8 “Facts and Fiction: Film and Video Festival” (CREMASTER 5), Cinema De Amicis, Milano, Italy, February 3 “Wounds: Between democracy and redemption in contemporary art,” Exhibition organized by Moderna Museet, Sweden, (CREMASTER 5), February 14 - April 26 NAT Film Festival (CREMASTER 5, March with the Anal Sadistic Warrior,) Copenhagen, Denmark, February 27 - March 14 (2 screenings) Nuart Theater (CREMASTER 5 and CREMASTER 4,) Los Angeles, California, February 6 - 12 METRO Cinema (CREMASTER 5 and CREMASTER 1,) London, England, March 20 - 26 14 de juillet Theater (CREMASTER 5) Paris, France, March 23 - April 5 Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, (CREMASTER 5), December 3 1997 Nexus Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4) C3, Center for Culture and Communication, Budapest, Hungary, (CREMASTER 5) Film Forum, New York, (CREMASTER 5) 1996 Film Forum, New York (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4), July Flicks, Boise, Idaho, (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4), July San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4), May - June L.A. County Art Museum (CREMASTER 1, CREMASTER 4), May Museum of Modern Art, New York (CREMASTER 1), February School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (CREMASTER 4), February 1995 New York Film Festival (CREMASTER 1), October The Metro, London (CREMASTER 4), May Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, (CREMASTER 4), April - May Awards: Education/Prizes 1989 B.A. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 1993 “Europa 2000" Prize, Aperto ’93, XLV Venice Biennale 1996 Hugo Boss Award, Guggenheim Museum, New York Media: other, Film