Dana Schutz is a storyteller. Her work constructs a universe of turbulent characters, human madness, calamitous situations, and physical disasters. She creates a dystopian portrait of the contemporary world, detached from traditional notions of beauty. With a virtuoso use of color, she has developed over the years a sense of dramatic tension that is revealed in her complex compositions. Her paintings depict imaginary scenes inspired by hypothetical situations and improbable bodies, blended with contemporary life and language.
Dana Schutz’s work is held in many institutional collections, including the Aïshti Foundation in Beirut, Lebanon; Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney; Cleveland Institute of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine; Hammer Museum in Los Angeles; Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto in Italy; Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas; Pérez Art Museum Miami; Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts; Rubell Museum in Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State University in Kansas; and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
born 1976 Livonia, Michigan, USA
lives and works in New York
selected solo exhibitions
2024
Dana Schutz: The Sea and All Its Subjects, David Zwirner, Paris, France
Dana Schutz: The Island, The George Economou Collection, Athens, Greece
2023
The Visible World, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, France
Between Us, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
2021
The Gardener, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2018
Eating Atom Bombs, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
2017
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, USA
2016
Waiting for the Barbarians, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2015
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada
Fight in an Elevator, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
2013
God Paintings, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2012
If the Face Had Wheels, Denver Art Museum, Denver, USA
Works on Paper, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, USA
If the Face Had Wheels, Miami Art Museum, Miami, USA
2010
The Last Thing You See, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Museo d’arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Rovereto, Italy
2008
If It Appears in the Desert, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2006
Paintings 2002-2005, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA; travelled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, USA
2005
Teeth Dreams and Other Supposed Truths, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2004
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, USA
Self-Eaters and the People Who Love Them, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
Run, Maria Diacono Gallery, Boston, USA
2002
Frank From Observation, LFL Gallery, New York, USA
selected group exhibitions
2025
The Guiding Thread, Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris
2024
The Mother Position, Contemporary Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland
Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, USA
Dead Can Dance, Contemporary Fine Arts, Basel, Switzerland
Day for Night: New American Realism, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy
2022
Zeitmaschine Balthus: Eine Berliner Sammlung, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
2021
There Is Always One Direction, de la Cruz Collection, Miami, USA
Neue Sachlichkeit, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2020
Der Goldene Reiter, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2019
Painting, Martin Kippberger, Maria Lassnig, Albert Oehlen, Dana Schutz, Petzel Gallery, New York, USA
Max Beckmann in Dialog: Dialogue: Cecily Brown, Ella Kruglyanskaya, Dana Schutz, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2017
Whitney Biennial 2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
2016
Don’t Look Back, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Borsch and Champagne: Selected works from the collection of Vladimir Ovcharenko, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
Campaign for Art: Contemporary, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
2015
America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Avatar and Atavism: Outside the Avant-Garde, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Tracing Shadows, Plateau Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2012
Kids, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Pothole, Salon 94, New York, USA
Riotous Baroque: From Cattelan to Zurbarán Manifestations of Precarious Vitality, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
2010
Shifting the Gaze: Painting and Feminism, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
Carol Bove, Dana Schutz and Sterling Ruby, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York, USA
2009
A Decade of Contemporary American Printmaking: 1999-2009, Visual Art Center of Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Accrochage, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2008
After Nature, New Museum, New York, USA
Eclipse: Art in a Dark Age, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2007
Two Years, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
USA TODAY, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
Hammer Contemporary Collection: Part II, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA
Art in America: Three Hundred Years of Innovation, organized by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago. Exhibited at National Art Museum of China, Beijing and Shanghai Museum with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China
2006
Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France
USA TODAY, Royal Academy of Art, London, UK
Once Upon a Time in the West, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
2005
Greater New York, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
Take Two. World and Views: Contemporary Art from the Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2004
Dana Schutz, The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Direct Painting, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
2003
Clandestine, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2000
BFA Exhibition, Reinberger Gallery, Cleveland, USA