Josephine Meckseper

{{Infobox artist

| field = installation, sculpture, painting, photography, film

| training =

| works =

| awards = John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship

| birth_place = Lilienthal, Lower Saxony, Germany

| education = California Institute of the Arts

| name = Josephine Meckseper

| image = Meckseper manhattan.jpg

}}

Josephine Meckseper is a German-born artist, based in New York City.{{r|getty}} Her large-scale installations and films have been exhibited in various international biennials and museum shows worldwide.

Life and education

Meckseper grew up in Worpswede, Germany, an artist community founded at the beginning of the 20th century, by a group of artists including Heinrich Vogeler (1872- 1942).{{Cite web |last=Banks |first=Grace |title=Artist Josephine Meckseper Creates A Post-Capitalist World With Her Mannequin Vitrines |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/gracebanks/2023/05/16/artist-josephine-meckseper-creates-a-post-capitalist-world-with-her-mannequin-vitrines/ |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=Forbes |language=en}} Vogeler was a diverse political artist and architect whose early work is situated within the Jugendstil movement, a German offspring of Art Nouveau. Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) and the writer and poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), both lived in Worpswede for parts of their life.

Meckseper studied at Berlin University of the Arts in Germany from 1986–1990, and completed her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in 1992,{{Cite web|url=http://artipedia.org/artsnews/exhibitions/2007/07/14/josephine-meckseper-at-kunstmuseum-stuttgart/|title=Josephine Meckseper at Kunstmuseum Stuttgart - Artipedia - Arts News}} where she was influenced by artists Michael Asher and Charles Gaines, filmmaker Thom Andersen and literary critic and cultural theorist Sylvère Lotringer.{{Cite book|title=Josephine Meckseper: American Still Life|last=Szewczyk|first=Monika|publisher=Flash Art. No. 272.|pages=98–100}}

Meckseper's father is the renowned German artist Friedrich Meckseper (1936-2019).{{Cite web |last=Meckseper |first=Josephine |date=2019-06-26 |title=My father, the polymath, artist and adventurer, Friedrich Meckseper |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2019/06/26/my-father-the-polymath-artist-and-adventurer-friedrich-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=The Art Newspaper - International art news and events}}

Work

= Films =

Early Work: Meckseper’s first films time at CalArts coincided with the Gulf War and the Los Angeles riots, 1992; during this politically-charged period her first installations and films reflected upon the actions of the Situationist International who advocated experimentation with the construction of situations, namely setting up environments as alternatives to capitalist order.{{Cite web |last=Toro |first=Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, Nick Scholl, David |title=Josephine Meckseper {{!}} The Final Shop |url=https://dismagazine.com/discussion/27805/the-final-shop/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=DIS Magazine}} Meckseper’s subsequent short films followed a similar principle and were filmed at Anti-capitalist and Anti-war protests in different parts of the world; as well as at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Meckseper’s film PELLEA[S], 2018 adapts the Symbolist play Pelléas et Mélisande (1892), weaving together fictional scenarios and dramatic footage captured by the artist at the 2017 presidential inauguration and the landmark women’s march that followed. Conflating contemporary political realities to Arnold Schoenberg’s modernist sound poem of Pelléas et Mélisande, the city of Washington, D.C. and its architecture become a context and site of departure, giving voice to debates around notions of gender found in the original play. Meckseper expresses through cinema the dramatic narratives and relationships contained within the universe of her signature glass and mirror vitrines, and draws a direct correlation to the way early Modernism and the avant-garde developed into a form of political and aesthetic resistance to classism and capitalism.

= ''FAT Magazine'' =

In 1994, Meckseper founded FAT Magazine, a conceptual magazine project distributed at newsstands and in supermarkets, but also exhibited in galleries and museums in the form of wallpaper. It was inspired by political theorist and radical publisher Jean-Paul Marat’s newspaper, published during the French Revolution called L'Ami du peuple and the avant-garde tradition of breaking down barriers between art and life.{{Cite web |date=2016-04-11 |title=Josephine Meckseper {{!}} |url=https://flash---art.com/article/josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Flash Art |language=en-US}} Since 1994 Meckseper has published five issues: Good and Evil (1994); Surrender (1995/1996); on Fire (1997); Overflow (1999); Objectification (2018).{{Cite web |title=Fat Magazine |url=https://fatmagazine.us/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=fatmagazine.us}}

= Vitrines =

File:Josephine Meckseper Art Installation.jpg

Source:{{Cite web |title=https://primo.getty.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/GETTY_ALMA21151474440001551/GRI |url=https://primo.getty.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay/GETTY_ALMA21151474440001551/GRI |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=primo.getty.edu |language=en}}

While Meckseper’s earliest vitrine works commented on contemporary consumer culture using the shop window as an example and focus point for civic unrest and protest, documented in her film works, her later steel and glass vitrines, allude to the political dimension of early modernist Bauhaus display architecture and design between World War I and II in Weimar Germany. Meckseper melds the aesthetic language of early modernism with her own objects and paintings and footage of historical and political undercurrents, taking on a similar function as Mies van der Rohe’s well-known designs and glass structures for art collections: art and art history are on display. Often contained within Meckseper’s displays are paintings that nod to 20th century European modernist art, such as Russian constructivism.{{Cite book |last=Lotringer |first=Sylvère |title=The Josephine Meckseper Catalogue No. 2 |publisher=Sternberg Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-933128-14-6 |location=New York and Berlin}}

= ''Manhattan Oil Project'' =

In 2012, her public art project Manhattan Oil Project, commissioned by the Art Production Fund, was installed on the corner of 46th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artproductionfund.org/projects/josephine-meckseper-manhattan-oil-project|title=Josephine Meckseper Manhattan Oil Project|website=Art Production Fund}} Consisting of two monumental kinetic sculptures modeled after mid-20th century oil pumps, these 25 feet tall sculptures were inspired by oil pumps that the artist discovered in Electra, a boarded-up town once famous for being the pump jack capital of Texas. Placed in a vacant lot next to Times Square, the fully motorized pump jacks recalled the ruins of ghost towns, forgotten monuments of America's decaying industrial past.{{Cite web |title=JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER: MANHATTAN OIL PROJECT |url=https://www.artproductionfund.org/projects/josephine-meckseper-manhattan-oil-project |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Art Production Fund |language=en-US}}

In 2022, she received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.{{cite web |title=Guggenheim Announces 2022 Fellowship Recipients |url=https://www.artforum.com/news/guggenheim-announces-2022-fellowship-recipients-88358 |website=ArtForum |date=8 April 2022 |access-date=9 April 2022}}

Selected Exhibitions

Signs and Objects: Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection, Guggenheim Bilbao, 2024{{Cite web |title=Signs and Objects. Pop Art from the Guggenheim Collection {{!}} Guggenheim Museum Bilbao |url=https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/exhibitions/signs-and-objects-pop-art-from-the-guggenheim-collection |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus |language=en}}
Scenario for a Past Future, Hurley Gallery of the Lewis Center of the Arts, Princeton University, 2024{{Cite web |title=Scenario for a Past Future: Exhibition by Josephine Meckseper |url=https://arts.princeton.edu/events/scenario-for-a-past-future-exhibition-by-josephine-meckseper/2024-01-31/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Lewis Center for the Arts |language=en-US}}
Moment Choisis, Guild Hall, East Hampton, New York, 2021{{Cite web |title=Moments Choisis by Josephine Meckseper |url=https://www.guildhall.org/events/moments-choisis-by-josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Guild Hall |language=en-US}}
Josephine Meckseper, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, and Hab Galerie, Nantes, 2019{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper {{!}} |url=https://fracdespaysdelaloire.com/en/parution/josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |language=en-US}}
MOSTYN Contemporary Art Gallery, Llandudno, 2019{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper - Mostyn |url=https://mostyn.org/?post_type=event&p=1318 |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=mostyn.org}}
America Is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2015{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://whitney.org/artists/10149 |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=whitney.org |language=en}}
Storylines, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2015{{Cite web |title="Storylines" |url=http://exhibitions.guggenheim.org/storylines/josephine-meckseper |website=Guggenheim}}
2X (I) ST, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, 2014{{Cite web |title=2X(I)ST — Neuer Aachener Kunstverein |url=http://www.neueraachenerkunstverein.de/content/2013/ausstellungen/josephine-meckseper/?lang=en |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.neueraachenerkunstverein.de}}
Pop Departures, Seattle Art Museum, 2015{{Cite web |title=Pop Departures - Announcements - e-flux |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/30542/pop-departures/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}}
Taipei Biennial 2014-2015{{Cite web |title=2014 台北雙年展／劇烈加速度藝術在人類世 |url=http://www.taipeibiennial2014.org/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=TAIPEI BIENNIAL 2014 台北雙年展 |language=en-gb}}
The Brancusi Effect, Kunsthalle Wien, 2014{{Cite web |title=The Brancusi Effect |url=https://kunsthallewien.at/en/exhibition/the-brancusi-effect/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Kunsthalle Wien |language=en-US}}
Mark Boulos and Josephine Meckseper, The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, 2014{{Cite web |title=Past Exhibitions |url=https://www.brandeis.edu/rose/exhibitions/past.html |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.brandeis.edu |language=en}}
Josephine Meckseper, Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, 2013{{Cite web |title=Platform: Josephine Meckseper |url=https://parrishart.org/exhibitions/platform-josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Parrish Art Museum |language=en-US}}
Manhattan Oil Project, Art Production Fund, The Last Lot, Times Square, 2012{{Cite web |title=JOSEPHINE MECKSEPER: MANHATTAN OIL PROJECT |url=https://www.artproductionfund.org/projects/josephine-meckseper-manhattan-oil-project |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Art Production Fund |language=en-US}}
“Josephine Meckseper,” The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, 2011{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://www.flagartfoundation.org/exhibitions/josephine-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=The FLAG Art Foundation |language=en-US}}
2010 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2010{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2010-biennial/josephine-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=whitney.org |language=en}}
Josephine Meckseper: Recent Films, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 2009-2010
Josephine Meckseper, Kunsthalle Münster, 2009-2010{{Cite web |title=Kunsthalle Münster - Programme - Josephine Meckseper |url=https://www.kunsthallemuenster.de/en/programme/josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.kunsthallemuenster.de}}
New Photography 2008: Josephine Meckseper and Mikhael Subotzky, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2008-2009{{Cite web |title=New Photography 2008 |url=https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2008/newphotography/ |website=MoMA}}
Josephine Meckseper, Migros Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, 2009{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://migrosmuseum.ch/en/exhibitions/josephine-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst |language=en}}
“Josephine Meckseper,” Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, 2008{{Cite web |title=Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst |url=https://gak-bremen.de/ausstellungen/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=gak-bremen.de}}
“Josephine Meckseper,” Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, 2007{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper - Announcements - e-flux |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/40186/josephine-meckseper/ |access-date=2024-03-14 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}}

Public collections

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore{{Cite web |title=BMA Presents On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection {{!}} Baltimore Museum of Art |url=https://artbma.org/about/press/release/bma-presents-on-paper-drawings-from-the-benesch-collection |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=BMA Presents On Paper: Drawings from the Benesch Collection {{!}} Baltimore Museum of Art}}
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/artists/17314/objects |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.brooklynmuseum.org}}
Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles
FRAC Nord – Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque{{Cite web |last=Hauts-de-France |first=Frac Grand Large- |date=2024-01-15 |title=Frac Grand Large – Hauts-de-France |url=https://www.navigart.fr/fracgrandlarge/artworks/authors/MECKSEPER%20Josephine%E2%86%B9MECKSEPER%20Josephine |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Navigart.fr |language=fr}}
Kunsthalle Bremen{{Cite web |title=Werk - Untitled (Target) |url=https://onlinekatalog.kunsthalle-bremen.de/DE-MUS-027614/object/5650 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=onlinekatalog.kunsthalle-bremen.de}}
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart{{Cite web |title=Selling Out {{!}} Sammlung Online - Kunstmuseum Stuttgart |url=https://sammlung.kunstmuseum-stuttgart.de/objekt/selling-out |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=sammlung.kunstmuseum-stuttgart.de |language=de}}
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York{{Cite web |title=Results for "Josephine Meckseper" |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Josephine+Meckseper&sortBy=Relevance |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://migrosmuseum.ch/kuenstler/josephine-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst |language=de}}
Museum of Modern Art, New York{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper, Museum of Modern Art |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/35145}}
Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne{{Cite web |title=Artists {{!}} NGV |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/artist/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=www.ngv.vic.gov.au |language=en-AU}}
Pérez Art Museum, Miami{{Cite web |last=Wilkes |first=Rob |date=2013-12-19 |title=Multi-cultural Miami museum gets up and running with some Americana... |url=https://www.we-heart.com/2013/12/19/americana-perez-art-museum-miami/ |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=We Heart |language=en-US}}
Princeton University Art Museum{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/makers/16715 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=artmuseum.princeton.edu |language=en}}
Rubell Family Collection, Miami{{Cite web |title=NO MAN'S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection |url=https://rubellmuseum.org/component/content/article?id=621&Itemid=593 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=rubellmuseum.org}}
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/josephine-meckseper |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation |language=en-US}}
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York{{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper |url=https://whitney.org/artists/10149 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=whitney.org |language=en}}

Filmography

04.30.92 (1992)
East German Rooms with a View (2001){{Cite web |title=Living With More Art at Reinhard Hauff Stuttgart - Artmap.com |url=https://artmap.com/reinhardhauff/exhibition/living-with-more-art-2013 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=artmap.com}}
Die Göttliche Linke [The Divine Left] (2003){{Cite news |last=Christofori |first=Ralf |date=2005-07-31 |title=Politkünstlerin Josephine Meckseper: Die göttliche Linke |url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/politkuenstlerin-josephine-meckseper-die-goettliche-linke-a-367344.html |access-date=2024-03-21 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}
Rest in Peace (2004){{Cite web |last=Amado |first=Miguel |date=2007-04-07 |title="Just Kick It Till It Breaks" |url=https://www.artforum.com/events/just-kick-it-till-it-breaks-183611/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Artforum |language=en-US}}
March on Washington to End the War on Iraq, 9/24/05 (2005)
Untitled (Life After Bush Conference and One Year Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq Protest, New York, 3/20/04) (2005)
March for Peace, Justice and Democracy, 04/29/06, New York City (2007)
0% Down (2008){{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper - Artist - Andrea Rosen Gallery |url=https://m.andrearosengallery.com/artists/josephine-meckseper/images/0-down-2008 |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=m.andrearosengallery.com}}
Mall of America (2009)
Shattered Screen (2009){{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper and Lisa Anne Auerbach - Announcements - e-flux |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/37880/josephine-meckseper-and-lisa-anne-auerbach/ |access-date=2024-03-21 |website=www.e-flux.com |language=en}}
Amalgamated (2010)
DDYANLALSATSY (2010)
Contaminator (2010){{Cite web |title= Josephine Meckseper:... | Exhibitions | MutualArt|url=https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Josephine-Meckseper--Contaminator--2010/F57830591ECA486F}}
Pellea[s] (2018){{Cite web |title=Josephine Meckseper {{!}} 10 March - 30 April 2020 |url=https://www.timothytaylor.com/exhibitions/44-josephine-meckseper-pellea-s/ |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=Timothy Taylor |language=en}}

References

{{reflist|refs=

[https://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=&role=&nation=&subjectid=500126087 Meckseper, Josephine]. Union List of Artist Names. Getty Research. Accessed September 2021.

}}