Laurent Grasso

Biography

For Laurent Grasso, this interest in science and what we can and cannot know or cannot perceive has informed a growing body of video, sculpture and installation work.

For the 2009 Sharjah Biennial, Grasso created two new works: Untitled (2009), a video project exploring issues of surveillance and control using footage taken from a camera attached to a falcon in flight; and kullama ittasa'at al ru'ya dhaqat al ibara (the wider the vision, the narrower the statement) (2009), a large-scale neon installation. The latter was a development of previous projects placing neon text pieces in public spaces, most notably Infinite Light (2008), installed on the exterior of the Hunter College Art Galleries in New York.

Grasso has exhibited extensively throughout his career including solo exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris(2010/2009), Kunstverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg, Germany (2009), Sharjah Biennial (2009), Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2008), Akbank Sanat, Istanbul (2008) and Studio 814, New York (2007) as well as extensive participation in international group shows and biennials across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

As the 2008 Laureate of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Grasso presented a special exhibition at the Georges Pompidou Centre (2009).

Laurent Grasso was born in 1972 in Mulhouse, France and currently lives and works between New York and Paris. He studied at ENSBA, Paris, Cooper Union School, New York and Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London with residencies at the Villa Médicis, Rome and ISCP, New York. His work is the subject of a major new monograph, Laurent Grasso: The Black-Body Radiation (Les Presses du Reel, 2009).

October 2010

This person was part of Sharjah Biennial 9