Jack Pierson

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Jack Pierson
Born1960 (age 64–65)
Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.
Education Massachusetts College of Art and Design (BFA, 1984)
Known for
Movement Boston School
Website jackpiersonstudio.com

Jack Pierson (born 1960 in Plymouth, Massachusetts) is an American artist and gallerist. Pierson is known for his photographs, collages, word sculptures, installations, drawings, and artist's books. His works are held in numerous museum collections.

Contents

Early life and education

Pierson graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1984 with a bachelor's in fine arts. [1] He spent his last year of college at Cooper Union as part of an exchange program. [2]

Work

Pierson's practice encompasses wall drawings, word pieces, installations, drawings, paintings, and photographs. [3] He also operates a gallery in New York. For the project The Source, artist Doug Aitken filmed a conversation with Pierson exploring the essence of his creative process. [4]

Photography

Pierson is considered part of a group of photographers known as the Boston School, which includes David Armstrong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe, and twins Doug and Mike Starn, among others. [5] All of them knew one another in the early 1980s and photographed their immediate circle of friends in situations that were, or appeared to be, casual or intimate. [6]

In 2003, Pierson published Self Portrait, a book of photographs featuring 15 images of men arranged to suggest the arc of a lifetime, beginning with a young boy and progressing to old age; none of the images is of the artist himself. [6] His "Self-Portrait" series was shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.

Pierson's work is regularly commissioned for magazines, and he has undertaken photography projects for several luxury fashion houses. [7] Commissioned by the Italian luxury label Bottega Veneta, he photographed models Liya Kebede, Karmen Pedaru, and Alexandre Cunha for the 2012 spring/summer ad campaign in Coconut Grove, Florida. [8]

Word sculptures

Pierson began making his Word Sculptures in 1991, utilizing found objects: mismatched letters salvaged from junkyards, old movie marquees, roadside diners, Las Vegas casinos, and other forsaken enterprises. These works spell out individual words or phrases. [9]

In 2025, the Obama Foundation commissioned Pierson to create a sculpture spelling out "hope", one of President Barack Obama's core campaign slogans, with found letters for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. [10]

Video

Commissioned in 1997 by the artistic collective Bernadette Corporation, Pierson's video Past Life in Egypt is a collaboration with Ursula Hodel, who plays a glamorous dominatrix recounting her past life as a queen of Egypt. [11]

Paintings and drawings

In 2006, inspired by an earlier series of pencil drawings from an old postcard of a woman's face, Pierson produced a suite of twelve large-scale silkscreen paintings: linear graphics in black ink on off-white linen. [11]

In a group of what Pierson refers to as "first page drawings", he copies the first page of books by Barbara Pym, Jean Rhys, Sister Wendy, and Marilyn Monroe, among others, on 11 by 14 inches (28 cm × 36 cm) paper. [11]

In 2023, Pierson opened Elliott Templeton Fine Arts in Chinatown, New York. [12]

Collections

Pierson's work is held in public collections internationally, including:

Art market

Pierson is represented by Xavier Hufkens, Thaddaeus Ropac, Regen Projects, and Lisson Gallery (since 2022). [23]

References

  1. ↑ Massachusetts College of Art (1996). Perspectives. Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The College.
  2. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Interview Magazine. February 6, 2017. Retrieved November 12, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac . Paris/Salzburg. Archived from the original on February 17, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Doug Aitken – The Source: Jack Pierson". Tate Modern . London. December 7, 2012.
  5. ↑ McKenna, Kristine (June 1, 1997). "Chronicle of a Death Foretold". Los Angeles Times .
  6. 1 2 Gefter, Philip (December 18, 2003). "Self-Portrait as Obscure Object of Desire; Jack Pierson's Autobiography, of Sorts, in Photographs of Unidentified Men". The New York Times .
  7. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Galerie Xavier Hufkens. Brussels/Paris.
  8. ↑ Binlot, Ann (January 3, 2012). "Bottega Veneta Taps Jack Pierson for Latest Arty Ad Campaign". Artinfo .{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Regen Projects . Los Angeles. April 14 – May 12, 2007. Archived from the original on June 6, 2013.
  10. ↑ Goukassian, Elena (September 12, 2025). "Artists Including Jenny Holzer, Alison Saar, and Kiki Smith Creating Commissions for Obama Presidential Center". The Art Newspaper .
  11. 1 2 3 "Jack Pierson: Melancholia Passing Into Madness". Cheim & Read Gallery. New York. March 30 – May 6, 2006.
  12. ↑ Sandstrom, Emily (February 29, 2024). "Photographer Jack Pierson Walks Us Through His Personal Art Collection". Interview Magazine.
  13. ↑ "Jack Pierson". The Art Institute of Chicago.
  14. ↑ "Untitled". IMMA.
  15. ↑ "Jack Pierson". LACMA Collections.
  16. ↑ Kino, Carol (March 29, 2006). "You Can Take This With You". The New York Times .
  17. ↑ "Jack Pierson: The Lonely Life". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
  18. 1 2 "Jack Pierson, Fascination, 1990". MCA Chicago.
  19. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami. April 24, 2013. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Jack Pierson". The Museum of Modern Art.
  21. ↑ "Jack Pierson". SFMOMA.
  22. ↑ "Jack Pierson". Whitney Museum of American Art.
  23. ↑ Greenberger, Alex (May 13, 2022). "Jack Pierson, Artist with a Cult Following, Joins Lisson Gallery As It Prepares to Expand". ARTnews .
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