Roxy Paine New York, NY, USA, b. 1966

  • Roxy Paine is an American conceptual artist whose work investigates the complex relationship between the natural world and industrial systems.

     

    Lives and works in New York

     

     

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    His practice unites meticulous craftsmanship with a conceptual rigor that questions how human ambition reshapes organic processes and environments.

     

    Educated at Santa Fe College (New Mexico) and Pratt Institute (New York), Paine began his career in the early 1990s, co-founding the artist collective Brand Name Damages. His early installations and machine-based works brought him recognition on the international exhibition scene.

     

    Throughout his career, Paine has examined the paradox between human control and natural growth. His extensive body of work includes art-making machines that automate the creative process, polymer casts of plants, hyperreal wooden replicas of tools and industrial objects, and large-scale wooden dioramas depicting human-made spaces — laboratories, fast-food restaurants, or airport security zones — reimagined as sites of reflection.

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    Among his most renowned series are the monumental stainless-steel tree sculptures. These intricate, hand-welded forms translate the logic of natural growth into mechanical precision, merging the vitality of organic structures with the rigidity of engineered design. Installed in public spaces, Paine’s trees form a dialogue with their surroundings: their polished surfaces mirror sky and city alike, while their branching forms echo the nervous system, electrical circuits, and the architecture of thought itself.


    “I take this organic majestic being and break it down into components and rules.”

    – Roxy Paine


    Paine’s work has been presented in major international exhibitions and is held in prominent museum collections, including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, New York), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Brooklyn Museum (New York), The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA, Los Angeles), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York).

  • Works
    • Roxy Paine, Bad Planet, 2005
      Roxy Paine
      Bad Planet, 2005
      Foam, epoxy, lacquer, oil, stainless steel
      165,1 × 152,4 × 152,4 cm
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    • Roxy Paine, Defunct, 2004
      Roxy Paine
      Defunct, 2004
      Stainless steel
      13,6 × 5,5 × 5,5 m
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