American artist using banknotes
Mark Wagner (born 1976) is an American artist best known for meticulous collages made of United States banknotes , such as the portrait of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke , composed exclusively of one-dollar bills, in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery .[ 1] He is co-founder of The Booklyn Artist Alliance [ 2] and has published over twenty artists’ books with Bird Brain Press and X-ing Books.[ 3]
Currency collage
Since 1999, Wagner has been using US banknotes to create portraits, abstractions, allegories, still lifes, and sculptures ranging in size from 2x3 inch smiling and frowning parodies of Gilbert Stuart ’s portrait of George Washington on the dollar, to the 17x3 feet Liberty , a 2009 depiction of the Statue of Liberty using slices from over 1000 dollar bills.[ 4] Lisa Dennison , Chief Curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City commends Wagner's “witty and intricately detailed” work[ 5] and situates his art in the longstanding tradition of artists like Ed Ruscha who adapt pre-existing resources to create uniquely engaging works of art.[ 6] Detractors say the work can lean towards the gimmicky.[ 7]
Collections
Bibliothèque nationale de France , Paris
Boston Public Library , Boston, MA
Brooklyn Museum of Art , Brooklyn, NY
Corcoran Gallery of Art , Washington, DC
Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities , Los Angeles, CA[ 8]
Library of Congress , Washington, DC
Metropolitan Museum of Art , NYC[ 9]
Minneapolis Institute of Art , Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) , NYC
New York Public Library , NYC
Rhode Island School of Design , Providence, RI
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , San Francisco, CA
Smithsonian Institution , Washington, DC[ 10]
Stanford University , Palo Alto, CA
Walker Art Center , Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art , NYC[ 11]
Exhibitions
Wagner has had a number of solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions.[ 12]
Pavel Zoubok Gallery, NYC (2013, 2011, 2008) - solo exhibitions
Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum, Beijing, China (2012)
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC (2011)
Ronald Feldman Fine Art, NYC (2010)
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN (2009)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2009)
FLAG Art Foundation, NYC (2008)
Getty Center for the History of Art and Humanities, Los Angeles, CA (2005)
Renaissance Society / University of Chicago, IL (2004)
Parsons School of Design, NYC (2003) - solo exhibition
Yale University, New Haven, CT (2002)
Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY (2000)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC (2000)
Publication
Pacific Standard Magazine, "The King of Cash," cover image, Nov., 2013
WSJ Money Magazine, "A Yen for Art,” Mar. 9, 2013
Harvard Business Review Russia, cover image and artwork, United Press, 2012
The Baffler, No 19, artwork, MIT Press, Mar. 2012
New York State lottery advertising campaign, “Money Multiplier,” Nov. 2012
Wall Street Journal, "Mark Wagner: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" Lance Esplund, Aug. 6, 2011
Huffington Post, "The New Moneyed Art" Adrian Brune, Aug. 4, 2011
"Paper Promises," novel by Philip Coggan, cover image, Penguin UK, 2011
Hyperallergic, "The Phantoms of Liberty" Howard Hurst, Jul. 13, 2011
Newsweek, cover image, "The Capitalist Manifesto," Fareed Zakaria, Jun. 22, 2009
Harpers Magazine, "Infinite Debt," Thomas Geoghegan, Apr. 2009
Morning News, "Million Dollar Babies," Nicole Pasulka, Apr. 6, 2009
New York Times, "Collages Go to College, And Behave Accordingly,” Benj. Genocchio, Dec. 16, 2007
The New York Times, "Money Changes Everything,” Ken Johnson, Jul. 14, 2006
Chicago Reader, "Well-Worn Text," Nov. 29, 1996
Other coverage
See also
References
^ "Catalog of American Portraits Search Results" . National Portrait Gallery . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "Mark Wagner" . Booklyn Artist Alliance . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "x-ing books" . X-ing Books . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "Mark Wagner: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" Lance Esplund, Wall Street Journal Metro NY, August 6th, 2011
^ Lisa Dennison, Wall Rockets catalog essay, page 35, published by The Flag Art Foundation, NYC, 2009
^ Bruce Helander, "Ca$h Back," The Art Economist, December 2011
^ Art in America, “Mark Wagner: Pavel Zoubok”, December 2008, Elaine Sexton
^ "Mark Wagner" . The Getty Research Institute . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "The Collection Online: Smoke in My Dreams" . The Metropolitan Museum of Art . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "Mark Wagner" . Smithsonian Institution . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "Whitney Catalog" . Whitney Museum of American Art Library . Retrieved 2014-08-22 .
^ "Wagner CV 2014" (PDF) . Pavel Zoubok Gallery . Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-08-26. Retrieved 2014-08-24 .
External links
International National Artists