Artist's Talk Oliver Herring

Internationally recognized for his sculpture and performance work, Oliver Herring is interested in the quirks of chance and chance encounters, as strangers come together to interact in his videos and performances. Other projects have incorporated knitting and intricate 3D photo-collage portraits. You've seen him on the PBS series, Art:21--now join us for a chance to hear Herring discuss his recent work and upcoming projects.

Cosponsored with Ohio State's Department of Art. Herring, who lives and works in Brooklyn, first gained international recognition for A Flower for Ethyl Eichelberger, a sculptural memorial of mylar woven human figures, clothing, and furniture, dedicated to the legendary East Village drag performer and avant-garde playwright. Since 1998, he has created stop-motion videos and participatory performances with "off-the-street" strangers, employing minimal materials and recycling elements from one artwork to the next. His TASK, a seven-hour self-perpetuating public performance in which participants explored a given set of rules, was presented at the Hirshhorn Museum in 2006. Herring's recent exploration of photo-sculptures documents strangers' faces after hours of spitting colorful food dye, recording a moment of exhaustion and intensity that doubles as a form of abstract painting.

Herring was born in Germany in 1964 and studied at the University of Oxford in England (B.F.A.) and Hunter College in New York (M.F.A.). He has received grants from Artpace (San Antonio); New York Foundation for the Arts; and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, among other venues.


additional image info

Wade (details), 2006
Digital c-print photographs, museum board, foam core, and polystyrene
68 x 22 1/2 x 15 in. (172.7 x 57.2 x 38.1 cm)
Image courtesy of Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Photos: Eli Ping Weinberg

Task, 2002
Performed at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, April 29, 2006
Photo: Christopher Smith