Jenny Holzer's Truisms Return to the Public Screen at Serralves Museum
In 1982, artist Jenny Holzer debuted her provocative statements on the Spectacolor billboard in Times Square, challenging societal norms with phrases such as "PRIVATE PROPERTY CREATED CRIME." Her influential project, Messages to the Public, lasted until 1990. Now, Holzer's latest showcase, Wrong Answers, is on display at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto. This exhibition features a range of mediums, including paper works, stone carvings, and LED installations, while introducing contemporary pieces like READY FOR YOU (2023–25). Holzer's evolution is marked by a transition from stone permanence to the transient nature of digital text.
Key facts
- In 1982, Jenny Holzer placed her Truisms on the Spectacolor billboard in Times Square as part of the Messages to the Public project (1982–1990).
- The Truisms included statements such as 'PRIVATE PROPERTY CREATED CRIME' and 'TORTURE IS BARBARIC'.
- Holzer's exhibition Wrong Answers is on view at the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto.
- The exhibition includes paper works, stone inscriptions, LED installations, and newer pieces like READY FOR YOU (2023–25).
- READY FOR YOU incorporates material connected to Donald Trump and AI-generated transformations.
- Beginning in 1977, Holzer pasted Truisms on paper across New York.
- Her Living series transferred language onto bronze plaques, giving subjective observations the visual authority of civic markers.
- The Spectacolor board consisted of thousands of incandescent bulbs arranged as a large matrix.
Entities
Artists
- Jenny Holzer
- Donald Trump
- Kilo
- Kilos
Institutions
- Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
- Spectacolor
- Messages to the Public
- Artists Rights Society (ARS)
- Creative Time
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
- Guggenheim Bilbao
- SolidNature
- designboom
- Fundação de Serralves
- Hauser & Wirth
- Gemini
- ChatGPT
- Serralves Foundation (Fundação de Serralves)
- Serralves Foundation
Locations
- Times Square
- New York
- United States
- Porto
- Portugal