Dara Birnbaum
American, 1946–2025
Dara Birnbaum (born in New York City in 1946) received a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, a B.F.A in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Certificate in Video and Electronic Editing at the Video Study Center at the New School for Social Research, New York.
Since her first solo exhibition in New York at Artists Space in 1977, Birnbaum has had shows in numerous renowned international museums, such as: MoMA, New York; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; mumok and the Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, Valencia; MACBA, Barcelona; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In 2009-2010, a major retrospective exhibition Dara Birnbaum: The Dark Matter of Media Light was presented at S.M.A.K., Ghent, which also traveled to the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto.
Distinguished awards include: a United States Artists Fellowship; a Rockefeller Belllagio residency; the TV Picture Prize, International Festival of Video and Electronic Arts in Locarno, Switzerland; Certificate in Recognition of Service and Contribution to the Arts, Harvard University; and the American Film Institute's Maya Deren Award for Independent Film and Video Artists. Her work is held in the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; MACBA, Barcelona; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; the Museo Reina Sofia Reina, Madrid; and Tate Modern, London.; amongst others.
Birnbaum currently has a commissioned work on view at the critically acclaimed Michael Jackson: On The Wall exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until 21 October 2018. The Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester, New York will be unveiling a new three-channel video commission by Birnbaum on 13 April 2019.
Submitted by Marian Goodman Gallery



