Doug Aitken
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About
Doug Aitken is an American artist and filmmaker. Defying definitions of genre to reimagine what a work of art can be – and what an art experience can achieve – he visually articulates a world that is driven by information and continuously in flux. At their core, his works invite us to consider the nature of our present and signal possibilities for the future.
His is a unique immersive aesthetic, characterised by a fascination with motion and velocity, that demonstrates the nature and structure of our media-saturated cultural condition. To this end, Aitken edits together models of contemporary experience to create a new landscape, one in which he hopes we find points of anchor and experience a sense of connection. He employs a number of post-studio mediums – including photography, sculpture, architecture, sound installation and multichannel video installation. In each of his works, he chooses the medium or combination that amplifies and visually articulates the subject's qualities. The scale of his work can vary from a simple photograph, to a complex moving sculpture of infinitely reflective automated mirrors, to quasi-narrative films creating intricate mazes of open-ended stories told across reinterpreted physical architecture.
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Biography
Born in 1968, Doug Aitken currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent major solo exhibitions include Lightscape: Doug Aitken, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, USA (2024); Doug Aitken: Naked City, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey (2024); Doug Aitken: Return to the Real, Schauwerk Sindelfingen, Germany; Doug Aitken, migration (empire), The Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, USA (2023); Doug Aitken: Flags and Debris at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel (2022), and New Era at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia (2021–22). Previous major solo presentations of the artist's work have been staged at institutional venues including Faurschou Foundation, Beijing (2019); Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark (2018); Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2017); The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles (2016); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2015); Nam June Paik Art Center, South Korea (2013); Seattle Art Museum (2013); Tate Liverpool (2012); LUMA Foundation, Arles, France (2012); Deste Foundation, Hydra, Greece (2011); Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati (2010); Museo d'Art Contemporanea Roma, Rome (2009); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007); Aspen Art Museum (2006); Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2005); The Fabric Museum and Workshop, Philadelphia (2002) and Serpentine Gallery, London (2001).
Aitken's work has been displayed at institutions including Garage, Moscow (2019); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2019); Langen Foundation, Germany (2018); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium (2018); ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark (2017); Somerset House, London (2016); Museum Folkwang, Germany (2016); Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2015); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2014]; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (2014); MAK Center for Art & Architecture, Los Angeles (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2013); Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2011–12); Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (2011); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); Moscow Museum of Art and Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow (2011); Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota (2010); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2010); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2009); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2009); Stedejik Museum, Amsterdam (2007); ICA, Philadelphia (2007); ICA, London (2006); and Hayward Gallery, London (2005).
The artist was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999; he has been the recipient of the 2012 Nam June Paik Art Center Prize, the 2013 Smithsonian Magazine American Ingenuity Award: Visual Arts, and the 2016 Americans for the Arts National Arts Award: Outstanding Contributions to the Arts. Aitken is the inaugural recipient of the Frontier Art Prize, a new contemporary art award that supports an artist of international stature pursuing bold projects that challenge the boundaries of knowledge and experience to reimagine the future of humanity.
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News
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Doug Aitken in conversation with Beck for Interview Magazine
January 6, 2025'The culture and the information world is like an endless kaleidoscope. For me, the creative process is an attempt to navigate this and perhaps temporarily make some sense it.'Read More -
Doug Aitken: Lightscape at Marciano Art Foundation
December 17, 2024On view 17 December 2024–15 March 2025 Lightscape is a multimedia artwork created by artist Doug Aitken in collaboration with the Los Angeles Master Chorale...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Naked City opening at Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul
September 11, 2024This monographic exhibition (14 September 2024-17 August 2025) invites visitors to the world of Aitken’s mastery in utilising various mediums to create immersive artworks that mirror the rhythm of the environment around them.Read More -
Extended to June 2024 – Doug Aitken: Return to the Real at Schauwerk Sindelfingen
February 21, 2024The exhibition (24 September 2023–16 June 2024) comprises ten works from the past fifteen years and includes installation, sculpture and moving image. The video installation...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Flags and Debris at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
August 9, 2022The exhibition (9 August–31 December 2022) weaves together sights and feelings that the Covid-19 pandemic produced as it left its mark on urban activity, on...Read More -
The Art Newspaper and ARTnews report on Doug Aitken: Open
February 17, 2022In Open , the first project to launch on Vortic VR, Doug Aitken has created what he sees as a new context for his artworks,...Read More -
Now live – Doug Aitken: Open
February 15, 2022Victoria Miro (London), 303 Gallery (New York), Galerie Eva Presenhuber (Zürich), and Regen Projects (Los Angeles) are pleased to announce a joint presentation of the...Read More -
Doug Aitken: New Era at MCA Sydney
October 19, 2021This survey exhibition (20 October 2021–06 February 2022) features installations, objects, photographs, and vast immersive multi-screen environments that envelop visitors within a kaleidoscope of moving...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Flags and Debris to receive its European premiere as part of Biennale Danza, 15th International Festival of Contemporary Dance
July 15, 2021In Aitken’s video Flags and Debris , pulses of electricity merge with the human heartbeat and move through a landscape that is expansive and anonymous....Read More -
Doug Aitken: Green Lens opens in Venice
July 15, 2021‘Green Lens is a living artwork. It is simultaneously an artwork, installation and stage. It's like a lighthouse that one can journey to and have...Read More -
Carnegie Museum of Art’s online exhibition series continues with Doug Aitken’s migration
August 19, 2020The Open Museum, 19 August–15 Nov 2020: The Carnegie Museum of Art launches its free online exhibition screening of 'migration' from its collection. 'With...Read More -
Song Mirror, a performance inside Doug Aitken’s Mirage Gstaad
February 12, 2020Taking place on Saturday 29 February 2020, Song Mirror is a new musical performance composed by Doug Aitken that will be performed live by six...Read More -
Doug Aitken talks to LA Magazine as he is awarded the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Alumni Award from ArtCenter College of Design
November 15, 2019We caught up with Aitken to chat about his work and new award, just as he opened a new show at London’s Victoria Miro. The...Read More -
Doug Aitken talks to Dezeen about Return to the Real
October 27, 2019American artist Doug Aitken explores the nature of freedom in a world dominated by technology in his Return to the Real exhibition, which is on...Read More -
Read Doug Aitken’s interview in Wallpaper*, which explores the making of new works for his current Victoria Miro exhibition and includes an 18-page journey into Americana
October 10, 2019Washington Boulevard in Culver City is one of the few neighbourhoods left in Los Angeles that has not yet been transformed for the worse by...Read More -
Doug Aitken features in TRANSFORMER: A Rebirth Of Wonder at 180 The Strand
October 2, 2019Doug Aitken's New Era , 2018, is featured in The Store x The Vinyl Factory exhibition TRANSFORMER: The Rebirth Of Wonder at 180 Strand, curated...Read More -
Doug Aitken talks to Wallpaper* on the eve of his exhibition Return to the Real and an exclusive collaboration in the magazine’s forthcoming issue
October 1, 2019The very American art of Doug Aitken is, most of it anyway, at once transcendent and dangerously of the now. He is in that sense...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) is unveiled at The Donum Estate, California
September 7, 2019The Donum Estate, California, unveils Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) , a commissioned site-specific artwork by Aitken. Sonic Mountain (Sonoma) is situated within Donum’s lush eucalyptus grove....Read More -
Doug Aitken: New Horizon
July 12, 2019This nomadic art installation and series of happenings comes to Massachusetts 12-28 July 2019. This July, The Trustees will present New Horizon , a travelling...Read More -
Doug Aitken is featured in The Coming World: Ecology as the New Politics 2030–2100
June 24, 2019This major exhibition (28 June–1 December 2019) at The Garage, Moscow, takes a look at a future already in the making, when the environmental agenda...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Mirage Gstaad
June 6, 2019Elevation 1049: Frequencies features Mirage Gstaad , an outdoor, site-specific sculpture by Doug Aitken that will remain on view in Gstaad over the course of...Read More -
Doug Aitken at Faurschou Foundation, Beijing
March 18, 2019The artist's first solo exhibition in mainland China takes place between 23 March and 4 August 2019. Read more Image: Doug Aitken, 3 Modern Figures...Read More -
Artforum, Dezeen, Designboom and The Spaces feature Doug Aitken’s Mirage Gstaad
February 4, 2019Mirage Gstaad , a new outdoor site specific sculpture by Aitken, will remain on view in the Swiss Alps over the course of two years,...Read More -
Conrad Shawcross and Doug Aitken feature in Foresta Urbana at Palazzo Belmonte Riso, Palermo
October 26, 2018Curated by Paolo Falcone, the exhibition (27 October 2018–20 January 2019) features contemporary interpretations of the natural world by major international artists. Read more Image:...Read More -
Doug Aitken – Mirage Detroit
October 10, 2018Mirage Detroit is a site-specific installation by artist Doug Aitken, set within the over hundred year old former State Savings Bank in Downtown Detroit. The...Read More -
Doug Aitken’s Song 1 inaugurates the new Copenhagen Contemporary
June 29, 2018The opening programme (29 June–30 December 2018) includes Song 1 , 2012/2015, a major installation by Doug Aitken Presented on a circular screen, the impressive...Read More -
Doug Aitken’s migration (empire) goes on display at Weatherspoon Art Museum
June 6, 2018Aitken's video serves as the catalyst for a concurrent exhibition (9 June–30 September 2018) of artworks drawn from the museum’s collection. In his video migration...Read More -
Dezeen’s Top 10 Installations of 2017, featuring Mirage by Doug Aitken
December 13, 2017American artist Doug Aitken built this house-shaped structure clad in mirrors, which reflects the surrounding desert landscape of the Coachella Valley. The Mirage installation was...Read More -
Doug Aitken receives the inaugural Frontier Art Prize in Paris
October 18, 2017The Frontier Art Prize is a new contemporary art award that supports an artist of international stature pursuing bold projects that challenge the boundaries of...Read More -
Doug Aitken in Future Shock at SITE Santa Fe
October 7, 20177 October 2017 – 1 May 2018 Future Shock is a large-scale exhibition of works by international artists that articulates the profound impact of the...Read More -
Doug Aitken in Performance! at Le Tripostal, Lille
October 6, 20176 October 2017 – 14 January 2018 In 2017, the Centre Pompidou is celebrating its 40th anniversary throughout France. To share the celebration with a...Read More -
Floating Worlds: the 14th Biennale de Lyon, featuring Doug Aitken
September 21, 2017Aitken's Sonic Fountain II features in the Biennale, curated by Emma Lavigne to unfurl like a voyage around an archipelago of islands in a city...Read More -
Doug Aitken in Again and Again, Sammlung Goetz in the Haus der Kunst, Munich
September 15, 2017The exhibition (15 September 2017 – 8 April 2018) explores the fragile image of the self in video works from the 1990s and 2000s. On...Read More -
Last chance to see Doug Aitken: Mirage before it closes for the summer
June 26, 2017Mirage will close for July and August. It is hoped that it will reopen in the Autumn, check the website for updates. PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA...Read More -
Art Basel Unlimited: Doug Aitken
June 15, 201715 - 18 Jun 2017 Basel, Switzerland Victoria Miro is delighted to co-present with 303 Gallery, New York, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, and Regen Projects,...Read More -
Doug Aitken creates a new installation for ARoS Triennial
June 2, 2017Doug Aitken's The Garden is a new installation that brings the viewer into the center of the artwork and asks them to physically immerse, participate...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Electric Earth at The Modern, Fort Worth
May 28, 2017May 28, 2017 - Aug 20, 2017 Doug Aitken: Electric Earth is the first survey to comprehensively examine Aitken’s experimentations across mediums and disciplines, and...Read More -
Doug Aitken participates in Desert X
March 1, 2017The Coachella Valley and its desert landscape become the canvas for a curated exhibition of site-specific work by established and emerging artists (25 February -...Read More -
The Guardian reports on Desert X featuring Doug Aitken's Mirage
February 28, 2017Desert X: the arid exhibition that's bringing land art to Coachella The likes of Doug Aitken have decamped to the outskirts of Palm Springs to...Read More -
Doug Aitken talks to Architectural Digest about Mirage
February 28, 2017This Reflective House in the California Desert is Mind-Bending. By John Gendall Perched on the edge of the Chino Cone, overlooking Palm Springs, lot lines...Read More -
The Art Newspaper reports on Doug Aitken's Mirage for Desert X
February 28, 2017Confronting the landscape: Doug Aitken’s Mirage in the California desert The artist has created a mirrored ranch-style ‘house’ for the exhibition Desert X. By Victoria...Read More -
The FT visits Doug Aitken's Underwater Pavilions
January 23, 2017Total immersion: Doug Aitken’s underwater world Visitors to the LA artist’s latest work will need scuba gear. By Jonathan Griffin The waters around the pretty...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Electric Earth named one of Time Out Los Angeles' best exhibitions of 2016
December 28, 2016Doug Aitken's work is all about the human experience in fast-evolving, ever-changing urban environments. In this sense, he's the ultimate Los Angeles artist. 'Electric Earth,'...Read More -
Doug Aitken talks to Wallpaper* about Underwater Pavilions
December 16, 2016Pacific pavilions: Doug Aitken and Parley for the Oceans take art under the waves. By Ali Morris Clad in wetsuits and flippers, a line of...Read More -
Wired visits Doug Aitken's Underwater Pavilions
December 8, 2016Explore a Giant Underwater Installation Off the California Coast. By Jack Stewart Catalina Island is just 22 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, but...Read More -
Doug Aitken in The New York Times
November 20, 2016Off the coast of Catalina Island — At first, the fish avoided the intruder. A couple of beefy sheepshead hid in the kelp near the...Read More -
Just out: Protest publication
September 23, 2016This publication accompanies Protest at Victoria Miro, 23 September - 5 November 2016, an exhibition of historical and contemporary works by artists concerned with the...Read More -
Power to... the art of protest, as featured in The Observer
September 23, 2016Politically engaged art is thriving again, finding new ways to challenge in a complex digital world. We look at the rich history of protest art...Read More -
Doug Aitken is interviewed in The Guardian
September 14, 2016His video works have a beginning, middle and end … but not necessarily in that order. And now, with a mid-career retrospective at Moca in...Read More -
Doug Aitken: Electric Earth, the artist's first North American survey, at MOCA, Los Angeles
September 10, 201610 September 2016 - 15 January 2017 Electric Earth , Doug Aitken's first North American survey unfolds around major moving-image installations that articulate his thematic...Read More -
Doug Aitken announces underwater pavilions
September 7, 2016Doug Aitken Plans Underwater Art Installation. By Jori Finkel. LOS ANGELES — In planning his hometown survey, which opens on Saturday at the Museum of...Read More -
Doug Aitken interviewed in LA Weekly
September 6, 2016Finally, L.A. Gets the Enormous, Amorphous, Labyrinthian Doug Aitken Exhibit it Deserves. By Catherine Womak. Over the last 20 years, Los Angeles–based artist Doug Aitken’s...Read More -
Doug Aitken interviewed in the Los Angeles Times
August 26, 2016Doug Aitken's 'Electric Earth' will shake the MOCA landscape. By Deborah Vankin. Doug Aitken settles in around a long dining table at his Venice studio,...Read More -
Doug Aitken in Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick at Somerset House
6 July - 24 August 2016Daydreaming with Stanley Kubrick An exhibition of art inspired by the master film maker In partnership with Canon 6 July - 24 August 2016 A...Read More -
Doug Aitken interviewed in The Guardian
June 24, 2015Non-stop art: why Doug Aitken is a man on a mission. By Hannah Ellis-Petersen. He’s blown up his house, recorded the Earth’s tectonic plates, and...Read More -
Doug Aitken interviewed in The Art Newspaper
June 1, 2015ARTIST INTERVIEW: DOUG AITKEN. By Helen Stoilas. The Californian on Darwin, DNA, Ruscha’s cactus omelettes and never having enough time. Time must run differently for...Read More
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Books
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Gallery Exhibitions
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Doug Aitken: Microcosmos
15 Jul – 30 Oct 2021 VeniceVictoria Miro is delighted to present an exhibition in Venice by the celebrated American artist Doug Aitken. Microcosmos features a new series of handmade fabric wall hangings that, engaging with...Learn More -
Doug Aitken: Return to the Real
2 Oct – 20 Dec 2019 London Gallery IVictoria Miro presents Return to the Real, an exhibition of new works by Doug Aitken. Conceived as a unified composition of sound, light, form and movement, the exhibition explores our...Learn More -
Protest
23 Sep – 5 Nov 2016 London Gallery IDoug Aitken, Jules de Balincourt, Vlassis Caniaris, Elmgreen & Dragset, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Christian Holstad, Isaac Julien, Yayoi Kusama, Wangechi Mutu, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Richard Prince, Sarah Sze, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Kara Walker.Learn More -
Doug Aitken
12 Jun – 31 Jul 2015 Victoria Miro MayfairA specific constellation of five key works that has been conceived for the gallery by the artist, and deals with contemporary ideas of time through the use of sound, touch,...Learn More -
Doug Aitken
12 Oct – 12 Nov 2011 London Gallery IDoug Aitken's first solo exhibition in London for eight years will occupy both floors of Victoria Miro and include a specially reconfigured presentation of his acclaimed multi-channel film installation Black...Learn More -
Doug Aitken: I don’t exist
18 Oct – 6 Dec 2003 London Gallery II don't exist , Doug Aitken's first solo show in the UK since exhibiting at the Serpentine Gallery in 2001 features the London premiere of the video installation interiors, lightboxes...Learn More -
Raw
7 May – 30 Jun 2000 London Gallery IYayoi Kusama. Francesca Woodman, Robin Lowe, Adriana Varejão, Isaac Julien, Doug Aitken, Abigail Lane, Hadrian Pigott, Brad Lochore, Cecily Brown, Chris Ofili, Andreas Gursky, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Inez van Lamsweerde,...Learn More -
Doug Aitken: Into the Sun
7 Oct – 12 Nov 1999 Victoria Miro Cork Street
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Contact Form
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