Liberty / Libertà

Martin Puryear (American, b. 1941) will represent the United States at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Puryear is recognized for a fiercely independent visual language of object making that has developed over a half-century, and for a sculptural practice that has influenced generations of artists. The Biennale Arte 2019 will mark a major international presentation for the artist, whose work has remained at the forefront of American creativity. The 2019 U.S. Pavilion is commissioned and curated by Brooke Kamin Rapaport, Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Senior Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy. The exhibition marks the first time in the history of the Art Biennale that the U.S. Pavilion will be organized by an institution whose visual art program is focused exclusively on public art. Madison Square Park Conservancy and Puryear previously collaborated on the commission of a public art installation of his monumental sculpture Big Bling in 2016-2017. Puryear will create an entirely new body of work for the U.S. Pavilion, including new sculpture and a site-specific outdoor installation for the Pavilion’s forecourt. Puryear’s work summons disparate sources of inspiration to realize a coherent vision that culls and clarifies across cultures, continents, eras, and perspectives. In conjunction with the presentation at the U.S. Pavilion, the Conservancy and Puryear will realize outreach programs with underserved youth through a collaboration between Studio Institute of Studio in a School Association, Inc. in New York and Istituto Santa Maria Della Pietà in Venice. Martin Puryear (American, b. 1941) is the United States representative to the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Puryear is recognized for a fiercely independent visual language of object making that has developed over a half-century. His sculptural practice — work in wood, bronze, rattan, iron, tar, mesh, granite, fieldstone and other materials — has influenced generations of artists. Puryear’s 2007 retrospective was organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York and toured to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. An exhibition of his drawings, Martin Puryear: Multiple Dimensions, was organized by The Art Institute of Chicago in 2015 and on view at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His distinguished awards include the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1980), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant (1982), and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989). He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992), was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Yale University (1994), the Gold Metal in Sculpture by the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007) and received the National Medal of Arts (2011). Puryear lives and works in the Hudson Valley region of New York. His work is in the major public and private collections in the United States, Europe and Japan. He is represented by Matthew Marks Gallery. Puryear earned his B.A. from The Catholic University of America (1963), served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone (1964-66), studied printmaking at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts (1966-68) and received his M.F.A. from Yale University (1971). Brooke Kamin Rapaport is Commissioner and Curator of the United States Pavilion for the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. She is Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Senior Curator and is responsible for the outdoor public sculpture program of commissioned work by contemporary artists. Through Madison Square Park Conservancy, she founded Public Art Consortium, a national coalition of museum, public art program and sculpture park colleagues. Rapaport was assistant and associate curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, where she oversaw the permanent collection and organized numerous exhibitions including Vital Forms: American Art and Design in the Atomic Age, 1940-1960 (2001), and a series of installations in the Grand Lobby with contemporary artists such as Houston Conwill, Leon Golub, and Meg Webster. Rapaport was also a guest curator at The Jewish Museum in New York, where she organized exhibitions including The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend (2007) and Houdini: Art and Magic (2010). She frequently speaks on and moderates programs on contemporary art and issues in public art. Rapaport also writes for Sculpture, where she is a contributing editor. She serves on the boards of Socrates Sculpture Park, the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, and the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. She earned her B.A. from Amherst College and her M.A. in art history from Rutgers University. Tod Williams and Billie Tsien are the exhibition designers for the U.S. Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Williams and Tsien began working together in 1977 and founded their architectural practice in 1986. Located in New York City, their studio focuses on work for institutions including schools, museums, and not-for-profits. A sense of rootedness, light, texture, detail, and most of all experience, are at the heart of what they build. Notable projects include the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the LeFrak Center in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Asia Society Center in Hong Kong and they are currently designing the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. They also previously participated in the 13th Annual Venice Architecture Biennale, with their curated exhibit “Wunderkammer”. Over the past three decades, they have received numerous national and international citations, including the 2013 National Medal of the Arts from President Obama and the Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects. Outside the studio, Williams and Tsien are active participants in a broad cultural community and maintain long-standing associations with many organizations devoted to the arts. Williams is a trustee at both the American Academy in Rome and the Cranbrook Educational Community. Tsien is the current president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Both are Fellows of the American Academy in Rome, and have been inducted into the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Academy of Design, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences In parallel with their practice, they maintain active academic careers and lecture worldwide. At various times, they have taught at such institutions as the Cooper Union, Harvard University, Cornell University, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania among many others. As both educators and practitioners, they are dedicated to creating a better world through architecture.

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Venice, NY