John Currin

John Currin was born in 1962 in Boulder, he lives and works in New York.

Currin works as a painter, inspired by Old Master portraits, pin-ups, and B-movies, he mostly depicts women in an erotic way – searching for the point at which the beautiful and the grotesque are held in perfect balance. In his paintings he often mimics or refer to paintings from the Renaissance, using oil painting techniques from previous centuries.

Selected solo exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2003); Serpentine Gallery, London (2003); Whitney Museum of Art, New York (2003); Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines (2003); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2003); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1995) and Fonds Regional d’Art Contemporain, Limousin (1995). Group exhibitions include The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015); Royal Academy of Arts, London (2015); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2011); Kunsthalle Krems, Austria (2010); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2009); Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2008); Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen (2007); Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, Stockholm (2007); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006) and ICA, London (2006).

Currin’s work can be found in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Des Moines Art Centre, Iowa; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Collection, London and Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.

Photo: Richard Prince. Courtesy Gagosian.