Jenny Holzer Gallipolis, OH, USA, b. 1950

Over the course of four decades, she has redefined the relationship between language, power, and visibility, positioning text as both medium and message.

Holzer received a BFA in printmaking and painting from Ohio University in 1972 and an MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1977. After moving to New York, she participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where her transition from painting to language-based practice took decisive form. By the late 1970s, she had begun replacing the traditional art object with statements—succinct, declarative, and often confrontational—that would circulate beyond institutional walls.

Her early Truisms (1977–79), initially disseminated as anonymous fly-posters on the streets of New York, marked the beginning of a sustained exploration of how language operates in the public realm. These aphoristic statements—alternately provocative, contradictory, and unsettling—were later presented on electronic signboards, billboards, and architectural façades. Holzer’s work has since encompassed LED installations, stone benches, paintings, projections, and large-scale light interventions on buildings and monuments across more than fifty countries.

Her practice centers on introducing text into architectural and civic environments normally dominated by commercial or institutional messages. By inserting poetic, political, and personal texts into these contexts, Holzer disrupts habitual patterns of consumption and invites critical reflection. Her work addresses feminism, systems of power, violence, censorship, war, and economic disparity—not through illustration, but through the circulation of language itself. In doing so, she deliberately shifts art from enclosed galleries into shared civic environments, engaging audiences who may not otherwise encounter contemporary art.