Wednesday, December 9
2:00 – 2:45PM EST
On December 9, Pauline Willis, AFA Director and CEO, engaged in a lively conversation with artist Spencer Finch. Finch is a former recipient of the AFA’s Cultural Leadership Award, and an artist whose work explores color, perception, and natural phenomena, embracing science and poetry in equal measure. His work communicates experiences of the world that are both universal and intimately subjective.
This conversation looked at his recent projects, life during lockdown and what’s on the horizon.
Spencer Finch (b. Connecticut, 1962) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. He studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, Hamilton College, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. He has exhibited internationally since the early 1990s, and recently completed large scale public projects at the Harvey Milk Terminal at The San Francisco Airport (Orion) and at the Paddington Crossrail Station in London (A Cloud index). His upcoming installations include Secret Life of Glass at the Corning Museum and Moon Dust, a long term installation at the MFA, Houston.
He has had several solo exhibitions at museums such as The Morgan Library (2014), Indianapolis Museum of Art (2013), the Art Institute Chicago (2012), the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (2010), and MASS MoCA (2007). Finch was included in the 2009 Venice Biennale exhibition, and the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
Public projects include work for The High Line in New York City (2009), the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore (2012), the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York City (2014), and When You Look on the River and Sky (2019) as part of the Whitman at 200 celebration in Philadelphia.
His work is held in numerous museum collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the Glasgow Museum of Art, Scotland; the High Museum, Atlanta; the Guggenheim , New York; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; the Morgan Library, New York; MCA, Chicago; the MFA, Houston; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Whitney Museum, New York.
Image: Installation view, Rhona Hoffman Gallery. Left to right: Haiku (Winter); Haiku (Spring); Haiku (Summer); Haiku (Fall); Each: 3 fluorescent fixtures and filters, 48 x 16 inches. 2020
