Jill Magid

Jill Magid

Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, United States

Artist, writer, and filmmaker, Jill Magid, embraces a critical view of authority. She inserts herself into systems of control to become a protagonist within them, generating an interconnected body of work (sculpture, installation, performance, books, moving image) that drives each investigation forward. She has trained as a spy, a police officer, and a journalist embedded in Afghanistan. She has starred in films made on CCTV, been hired by police to bedazzle their surveillance cameras, exhumed an artist’s remains to question the private control of his work, and her remains will become a diamond owned by a collector when she dies. In 2008, her commission by the Dutch Secret Service to give it a "human face" resulted in the Dutch government's confiscation of her work from the Tate Modern in London.

The artist's work is deeply rooted in experience as she explores the emotional, philosophical, and legal tensions that exist between institutions and individual agency. To work together with or within large organizations, Magid looks for systemic gaps that allow her to get in touch with people on the 'inside'. The work tends to be characterized by the dynamics of seduction and the resulting narratives often take the form of a love story. These intimate encounters with bureaucratic systems are a means to develop a more nuanced critique, asking what fears and whose insecurities the system is designed to protect.

Postcards from the Pier (Detail: John Baldessari) | Fotografía digital | 2014

Postcards from the Pier (Detail: John Baldessari) | Digital photograph | 2014

Seguridad: PON ATENCIÓN A QUIEN ESTÁ DIRECTAMENTE FRENTE A TI | Espejo, ganchos de colgar con sujetadores, dimmer, fuente de energía | 46.4 x 182.9 cm | 2012

Seguridad: PON ATENCIÓN A QUIEN ESTÁ DIRÉCTAMENTE FRENTE A TI | Mirror, hanging hooks with fasteners, dimmer, power source | 46.4 x 182.9 cm | 2012

«Jill Magid's work is incisive in her poetic questioning of the ethics of human behavior and the hidden political structures of society. »

Chrissy Isles, Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City observes "Jill Magid's work is incisive in her poetic questioning of the ethics of human behavior and the hidden political structures of society. Her intelligent conceptual strategies involve the viewer in an absorbing and intellectual aesthetic experience that reverses the supposed conventionalisms of power, clandestinity, control and the social space."


Her solo exhibitions at institutions around the world include, among others, The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Renaissance Society, Chicago; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City; Tate Modern, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Berkeley Museum of Art, California; Tate Liverpool; the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam; Yvon Lambert, Paris and New York; Gagosian Gallery, New York; Dia Bridgehampton; and the Security and Intelligence Agency of the Netherlands. Magid has received awards from the Fonds Voor Beeldende Kunsten, the Netherland-American Foundation Fellowship Fulbright Grant, the 2017 Calder Prize, a 2020 Creative Time Artist Commission, a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2021 Via Art Fund Grant.

Labor Image

Tender | Jill Magid

The Barragán Archives:The Proposal | 2.02 quilates de diamante azul sin cortar con inscripción en micro-laser: I am wholeheartedly yours, ajuste de anillo de plata, caja de anillo | 2016

The Barragán Archives | The Proposal 2.02 carat, blue, uncut, diamond with the micro-laser inscription I am wholeheartedly yours, silver ring setting, ring box | 2016

The Barragán Archives: Ex-voto, Miracle of the Diamond | Aceite en estaño| 9.84 x 4.59 x 3.46 cm | 2016

The Barragán Archives: Ex-voto, Miracle of the Diamond | Oil on tin | 9.84 x 4.59 x 3.46 cm | 2016

Homage to the Square, 1963, After Josef Albers | Aceite sobre cartón duro | 40,64 x 40,64 cm | 2014

Homage to the Square, 1963, After Josef Albers | Oil on hardboard | 40,64 x 40,64 cm | 2014

The Barragán Archives: Dearest Federica | 80 diapositivas, proyector de diapositivas, audio | Dimensiones variables | 2013

The Barragán Archives: Dearest Federica | 80 slides, slide projector, audio Dimensions variable | 2013

Hangman | Pieza de neón, transformadores y cables | 65 x 26 cm | 2012

Hangman | Neon piece, transformers and wire | 65 x 26 cm | 2012

 I Can Burn Your Face: Former Committee Head | 7 mm de neón, tranformadores y cables | 2008

I Can Burn Your Face: Former Committee Head | 7 mm neon, transformers and wires | 2008

I Can Burn Your Face: Former Committee Head | 7 mm de neón, tranformadores y cables | 2008

I Can Burn Your Face: Former Committee Head | 7 mm neon, transformers and wires | 2008

Evidence Locker: Trust | DVD, imágenes policíacas CCTV con audio 18 min | 2004

Evidence Locker: Trust DVD, Edited police CCTV footage with audio 18 min | 2004

Evidence Locker: Control Room | DVD, imágenes policíacas CCTV con audio 18 min|  2004

Evidence Locker: Control Room | DVD, Edited police CCTV footage with audio 18 min | 2004

Related Exhibitions

Labor Days

Oct 01 2022 - Dec 10 2022

Labor Days

Jill Magid

Tender

May 27 2022 - Sep 10 2022

Tender

Jill Magid

#TodosSomosHonolulu

Oct 09 2020 - Mar 09 2021

#TodosSomosHonolulu

Labor

Ex-Voto

Jul 23 2016 - Sep 03 2016

Ex-Voto

Jill Magid

Faust 24

Nov 17 2012 - Jan 12 2013

Faust 24

Jill Magid

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