Jenny
Holzer was born 1950, Gallipolis, Ohio
Jenny Holzer was born July 29, 1950, in Gallipolis, Ohio.
She received a B.F.A. in printmaking and painting from Ohio
University, Athens, in 1972, and in 1975, she entered the
M.F.A. painting program at the Rhode Island School of Design
in Providence. While there, she began to introduce language
into her work. Holzer moved to New York after earning her
degree at R.I.S.D. in 1977, and enrolled in the Independent
Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York. That year, she created her first all-text works, the
Truisms series, printing them on paper, which she
pasted up anonymously around the city.
Holzer has been the recipient of several important
awards, including the Blair Award, presented by the Art
Institute of Chicago in 1982 and the Leone d’Oro award for
best pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1990.
In addition to the numerous solo and group exhibitions in
which her work has appeared, Holzer has created many public
projects, among them a Truisms display on the
Spectacolor Board in Times Square in 1982, sponsored by the
Public Art Fund, and a series of public spots for MTV in
1989. She has also published several books, including A
Little Knowledge (1979); Black Book (1980);
Hotel (with Peter Nadin, 1980); Living (with
Nadin, 1980); Eating Friends (with Nadin, 1981);
Eating Through Living (with Nadin, 1981); and Truisms
and Essays (1983).
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