DANA LIXENBERG
GRIMM NEW YORK NY 10012 202 BOWERY
+1 (646) 484-5223 UNITED STATES
FRANS HALSSTRAAT 26 1072BR AMSTERDAM
KEIZERSGRACHT 241 1016 EA AMSTERDAM
+31 (0) 20 675 24 65 THE NETHERLANDS
INFO@GRIMMGALLERY.COM WWW. GRIMMGALLERY.COM
DANA LIXENBERG has the ability to capture her subjects in profound moments of temporal being; in doing so, she engages in analytical scrutiny without imposing judgement. The artist’s subtle and sophisticated feel for color and her sensitivity for capturing the finest indications and details of human expression are striking in each of her portraits. This is evidenced in her extensive project Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, which tracks the changing shape of a small, underserved community in Watts, Los Angeles, through a combination of video, a web documentary, audio recordings, and a series of 393 black and white photographs made with a large format camera. Jeffersonville, Indiana (2005) shows a collection of landscapes and portraits of the small town’s homeless population, and The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008) documents an Inupiaq community on an eroding island of the coast of Alaska. Furthermore, she has had an extensive editorial practice working for publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vibe and Newsweek. The power of her work arises in the intimacy and the absence of social stereotyping.
opposite: Dana Lixenberg. Photo by Lotte van Raalte. Riposte Magazine. cover: detail | Tish’s Baby Shower, 2008, 1993-2015 | Dana Lixenberg
IMPERIAL COURTS
J50, 1993
Freeway, 1993
Solé, 2013
Toussaint, 1993
Spider, 1993
Marvella, 2008
Jeffersonville, Indiana
above: Trish Miller, 1998 opposite (clockwise from top left): Michelle Calhoun, 2013; Lawrence Wingard, 2013; Nikki, 1997; Sherry and Marty Tackett, 2000; James Laduke Lane, 2013; Darla Henry Waugh, 1998.
John Paul and Sheriese Malott, 2013
Danielle Snyder, 2013
In 1997, Dana Lixenberg accepted a magazine
shelter’s tenants on her own, returning to Haven
commission that would evolve into one of the great
House once a year, for the next seven years. She
personal projects of her career: an ongoing portrait
used a 4x5 camera and picked nondescript locations
series of the tenants at Haven House, a homeless
outside of the shelter for the portraits, wanting to
shelter in Jeffersonville, Ind.
capture her subjects free from their circumstances.
The New York City-based photographer originally
“It wouldn’t have done them justice to photograph
traveled to the Hoosier State to document the
them on a bed in the shelter,” Lixenberg says.
shelter’s young homeless women for the now-
“You don’t need a photograph to understand that
defunct Jane magazine. But she was struck by the
circumstance. I didn’t want people to see these as
variety of people she met and how much they defied
portraits of homeless people, but instead for them to
the stereotypical image of homelessness.
see the rich complexity of each individual. You could put these images next to my celebrity portraits, and
“We’re used to seeing photos of homeless people
the essence of each photograph would be the same.”
on the street—the down and out, maybe they have a mental illness, or drug and alcohol problems—and it’s easy to distance yourself from them and say, ‘That’s not me,’” Lixenberg says. “The people I met were the working poor, and I was drawn to their strength and charisma in a circumstance that I would find incredibly hard to deal with.”
After her 2004 visit, Lixenberg compiled some of her portraits into a book, Jeffersonville Indiana, published in 2005. And she revisited the project this past summer, when she returned to Haven House on assignment with TIME. Lixenberg says she was eager to return to Jeffersonville to see if
“It’s shocking how easy it is to fall through the
things had changed, amid reports about the shifting
cracks and lose your home. Shelter is a basic need,
demographics of the homeless.
especially for children, and when this is not met the consequences for society at large are tremendous. Do we want to live in a society that accepts this situation?” Lixenberg decided to continue documenting the
Total homelessness in the country has dropped an estimated 17 percent from 2005-2012, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. But the percentage of rural or suburban homelessness rose from 23 percent to 32 percent in the 12 months
ending September 2008, per a survey by the U.S.
to do something about it.”
Department of Housing and Urban Development. In fact Barbara Anderson, executive director of Haven
It’s a progress that Lixenberg hopes her photographs
House, says most people are surprised to learn that
can encourage by providing a more realistic, often
the majority of her tenants are elderly women and
unseen image of homelessness. When she returned to
their families. Her busiest months so far this year have
Jeffersonville this past July, Lixenberg found that little
been August and September, when many families
had changed. In fact, the shelter seemed busier than
were preparing to send their kids back to school, with
ever.
85 people staying in the shelter built for 60 on some nights. Like Lixenberg, she thinks that the nation needs
“It’s been 16 years now, and aside from some clothing
to broaden its perception of homelessness in order for
styles, I don’t think you can really tell a difference
the situation to improve.
from the older photographs and the ones I took this summer,” she says. “Things haven’t really changed for
“In Jeffersonville, we don’t have the same issues that
Jeffersonville, and in a way, that makes the old work
the homeless have in cities like New York, which is
even more relevant today.”
what people are used to,” she says. “People don’t want to see working people as homeless, or families as homeless—that would feel too familiar and we’d have
Ross Ritz, 2002
Tabathan Joy O’Riley, 2013
T H E L A S T D AY S OF SHISHMAREF
Teddy Sockpick
Nora Iyatunguk and Tim Nayokpuk
As a result of global warming Shishmaref, a small
from the island in front of the house that
island on the west coast of Alaska slightly south
hangs precariously over the eroding coastline.
of the polar circle, inhabited by 600 Inupiaq,
The climate message was the main focus of
will crumble into the ocean in less then ten years
their stories. To filmmaker Jan Louter and
time. Fourteen houses have been moved to safer
photographer Dana Lixenberg, in contrast, the
ground already, another six are jeopardized by
climate was a backdrop for the histories of people,
the violent waves of winter storms. The island
of a community, of a life in all its paradoxical
and its inhabitants seem set to become the first
intricacies. Images of the hunt and of immense
clear victims of global warming and inadequate
seascapes and snow-covered landscapes interact
international environmental awareness.
with intimate portraits and scenes from cluttered
A majority of the Inupiaq population have voted to move to a new location on the Alaska mainland across the bay, where they hope to preserve their traditional way of life as much as possible. Debates held during the past few years about where to relocate, revealed tensions between the
interiors. The impression it leaves yields more questions than answers: questions about identity, dignity, transience and mortality. What does it mean for an individual, for a culture to be forced to leave the land where their forefathers were born?
older generations and adolescents. The youth
The Last Days of Shishmaref is a project
are bored with five bingo evenings a week and
employing diverse media which supplement and
the modest sports hall as the only entertainment
enhance one another: a website, a documentary
facility available. The grown-ups – and especially
film, a book, a touring exhibition and an
the women – fear the influence of the city and
educational project for secondary schools,
the accompanying confrontation with alcohol
accompanied by a DVD. Combining a variety of
and drugs, still totally absent on Shishmaref,
contemporary and historical materials and the
responsible for the collapse of so many small
input of professionals as well as the community,
communities in this region and others.
the project will appeal to both readers with an interest in anthropology and photography as well
The countless news crews that visited the island over the past years paid no attention to the society as such. Almost all of them reported
as those concerned with climate change.
Nathan Weyiouanna’s house
Leslie Eutuk
Ardith Weyiouanna
7 pm., June 2007
installation view | American Images | 2018 | GRIMM Frans Halsstraat | Amsterdam (NL)
Kate Moss, 1994
installation view | American Images | 2018 | GRIMM Frans Halsstraat | Amsterdam (NL)
Dana Lixenberg Born 1964 in Amsterdam (NL) Lives and works in Amsterdam (NL)
2001
Romain Larivière Gallery, Paris (FR) united states, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam (NL)
1999
Portraits at Imperial Courts & Eight Women in Jeffersonville, Indiana, LACPS/Knowtribe Los Angeles, CA (US)
EDUCATION 1984 1987
London College of Printing, London (UK) Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam (NL)
AWARDS SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2017 2008 2005
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (Imperial Courts) Dutch Photobook Prize (Imperial Courts) Best Dutch Book Design (The Last Days of Shishmaref) Best Dutch Book Design (Jeffersonville, Indiana)
2019
No you won’t be naming no buildings after me, TENT, Rotterdam (NL) [forthcoming] Chapter 1NE, Het HEM, Zaandam (NL) Street Dreams. How HipHop took over Fashion, Kunsthal, Rotterdam (NL) Changing Views – 20 Years of Art Collection Deutsche Börse, FOAM, Amsterdam (NL)
2018
In-house exhibition, curated by Jorg Grimm, Manifesta, Amsterdam (NL) Gerrit turns 50, Willem only 28, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam (NL) Hella en Freek de Jonge: Het Volle Leven, Groninger Museum, Groningen (NL)
2017
9th International Photography Festival Organ Vida NEW CITIZENS, Museum of Contemporary Arts Zagreb, Zagreb (HR) Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017, Aperture, New York, NY (US) Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017, MMK Museum Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (DE) Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2017, The Photographers Gallery, London (UK)
2016
Imperial Courts 1993-2015, Busan Biennale 2016, Busan (SK)
2015
The 2015 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY (US)
2014
The Rush and Calm, Moments in the City, Museum for Photography, The Hague (NL) Unseen/Robert Morat Gallery, Amsterdam (NL) Kate Moss: The Icon, Hiltawsky Gallery, Berlin (DE) BLOG RE-BLOG, SIGNAL, New York, NY (US) Karel’s Choice- Looking back at contemporary art, De Hallen, Haarlem (NL)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020
American Images, GRIMM, New York, NY (US) [forthcoming]
2019
Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Fotohof, Salzburg (AT) [forthcoming]
2018
American Images, GRIMM, Frans Halsstraat, Amsterdam (NL) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Belfast Exposed, Belfast (IE) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Mai Mano House, Budapest (HU) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Fotobookfestival Kassel, Kassel (DE)
2017
Imperial Courts, Video Installation, GRIMM, New York, NY (US) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, GRIMM, Paris Photo, Paris (FR) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Centre Photographique, Rouen (FR) Burma Storybook, Kunsthal, Rotterdam (NL)
2015
Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (NL)
2014
De Burgemeester / The Mayor, VNG, The Hague (NL)
2011
De Burgemeester / The Mayor, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam (NL) Set Amsterdam, Foam, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (NL)
2008
The Last Days of Shishmaref, Las Palmas, Museum for Photography, Rotterdam (NL)
2007
Ieder Kind is Speciaal, Nationaal Onderwijsmuseum / Museum for Education Rotterdam (NL)
2005
Homeless USA, De Hallen, Haarlem (NL) Bowie Van Valen Gallery, Amsterdam (NL)
2013
2011
Global Photography – True Stories from 20 contemporary photographers, Centro Officine Fotografiche, Rome (IT) Temporary Stedelijk 2, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL)
2010
(Some) True Stories, Mi Camera, Milan (IT) Global Photography; True Stories, Si Fest, Savignano (IT) Digital? Analogue!, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (NL) Grandioze Protestverkoop, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (NL)
2009
Rietveld Arsenale, Venice Arsenale, Venice (IT) Gone with the Wind, Zuiderzee Museum, Enkhuizen (NL)
2005
A View of Women, De Hallen, Haarlem (NL) The Children’s hour, Museum of New Art (mona), Pontiac, MI (US)
2004
I Amsterdam, Foam, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam (NL)
2002
Fotografen in Nederland 1852-2002, Museum for Photography, The Hague (NL) Percy Miller Gallery, London (UK)
1999
Mode Model, Howard Greenberg Gallery, Tokyo (JP)
1997
The Subject Seen, Knowtribe, New York, NY (US)
SELECTED COLLECTIONS Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt am Main (DE) Ekard Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Den Haag (NL) Huis Marseille, Amsterdam (NL) Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar (NL) Rabo Art Collection (NL) Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL) De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam (NL)
PUBLICATIONS 2018
2015 2011
2008 2007 2005 2001 2001 1999
Tupac Biggie, Roma Publications Amsterdam X Patta (NL) Imperial Courts, 1998-1999, Portra NC 160, Photopaper 29/30, Kasseler Fotografie Festival, Kassel (DE) Imperial Courts, 1993-2015, Roma Publications, Amsterdam (NL) De Burgemeester / The Mayor, Nederlands Genootschap van Burgemeesters, The Hague (NL) Set Amsterdam, Roma Publications, Amsterdam (NL) The Last Days of Shishmaref, Post Editions & Paradox, Rotterdam (NL) Ieder Kind is Speciaal, National Museum of Education, Rotterdam (NL) Jeffersonville, Indiana, Artimo Foundation, Amsterdam (NL) Offstage, Het Nationaal Ballet, Amsterdam (NL) united states, Artimo Foundation, Amsterdam (NL) Portraits at Imperial Courts & Eight Women in Jeffersonville, Indiana, LACPS/Knowtribe, Los Angeles (US)
202 BOWERY NEW YORK NY 10012
+1 (646) 484-5223 UNITED STATES
FRANS HALSSTRAAT 26 1072BR AMSTERDAM
KEIZERSGRACHT 241 1016 EA AMSTERDAM
+31 (0) 20 675 24 65 THE NETHERLANDS
INFO@GRIMMGALLERY.COM WWW. GRIMMGALLERY.COM