LILIANA PORTER
[1941, Argentina]
Liliana Porter first studied art at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires, where she enrolled at the age of twelve. Five years later, she moved to Mexico City, where she entered the Universidad Iberoamericana (UIA) and studied printmaking with Guillermo Silva Santamaría and Mathias Goeritz. She subsequently studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires. In 1964, on her way to Paris, Porter visited New York. Drawn to the opportunities and museums in the city, she postponed her trip to Europe and moved permanently to New York. In 1965, she co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop (NYGW) with artists Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo, producing prints while redefining conventional models for making and distributing art.
Porter’s work often places carefully chosen small figurines and other objects in monochromatic empty backgrounds, addressing larger philosophical questions and emotional states. Alongside printmaking, she has also worked extensively in the media of photography and video and has created works on canvas, drawings, collages, and installations. She writes, “Many of these pieces depict a cast of characters that are inanimate objects, toys and figurines that I find in flea markets, antique stores, and other odd places. The objects have a double existence. On the one hand they are mere appearance, insubstantial ornaments, but, at the same time, have a gaze that can be animated by the viewer, who, through it, can project the inclination to endow things with an interiority and identity. These ‘theatrical vignettes’ are constructed as visual comments that speak of the human condition. I am interested in the simultaneity of humor and distress, banality and the possibility of meaning.”
In 1973, Porter had a solo show in the Projects Room at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. The Bronx Museum of the Arts held a retrospective exhibition of her work in 1991, and she has had solo exhibitions at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, the Phoenix Art Museum, Museo de
Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), and many other institutions throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Porter was a professor at Queens College, City University of New York from 1991 to 2007.
Porter has been shown in numerous selected exhibitions, including Fragments of the Journey 1968-1991, Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA and Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA (1992); Liliana Porter: Drum Solo, Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA (2019); Liliana Porter: Fotografia y Ficción,Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2003); Fictions and Other Realities, Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design Gallery, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (two-person collaboration between Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia) (2005); El hombre con el hacha y otras situaciones breves, Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ), Guadalajara, Mexico and Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina (2013); Liliana Porter: Other Situations, El Museo del Barrio, New York City, New York, USA (2019); Selection of Works: 1968-1990, Museo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, Montevideo, Uruguay (1990);Liliana Porter – Selección de obra temprana y una reflexión desde el presente, Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (MNAV), Montevideo, Uruguay (2015); Untitled (shadows) 1969-2014, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Massachusetts, USA (2014); and Liliana Porter: Man with The Axe (Reconstruction of the original installation at the 57th Biennale di Venezia), Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Florida, USA (2018).
Porter’s work is included in many major collections including the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York, USA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, USA; Tate Modern, London, England, UK; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, USA.
2024
Liliana Porter: The Question of Scale, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Liliana Porter, Dia Art Foundation, Bridgehampton, NY, USA
Liliana Porter: The Gardener and Other Situations, Hessel Museum of Art Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA
Liliana Porter: Retrospective Exhibition, Museo Casa de la Moneda, Madrid, Spain
Liliana Porter, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Bueno Aires, Argentina
2023
Liliana Porter: Unfinished Tales, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Liliana Porter, le jeu de la réalité, Les Abattoirs, Musée - Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France
Liliana Porter, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Liliana Porter, Ruth Benzacar Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2022
Liliana Porter: One Wall, One Work, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
Liliana Porter: Two Realities, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, MA, USA
Liliana Porter: Fox in the Mirror, Saint Louis Art Museum, MO, USA
Liliana Porter, Mor Charpentier Gallery, Paris, France
2021
Conjeturas, Galería del Paseo, Manantiales, Uruguay
The Light, Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain
Diálogo con eso, La Caja Negra, Madrid, Spain
Liliana Porter: The Riddle/ Charada, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Man with the Axe and Other Stories, Gordon Contemporary Artists Project Gallery, Frist Art Museum Nashville, TN, USA
2020
Red Brush and Other Situations, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Lado a Lado, Galería del Paseo, Manantiales, Uruguay
2019
Liliana Porter: Blue and Black, Krakow Witkin Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
The Riddle and Other Circumstances, Mor Charpentier Gallery, Paris, France
Liliana Porter: Situations, Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland
2018
Liliana Porter: Memorabilia, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Liliana Porter: Man with The Axe (Reconstruction of the original installation at the 57th Biennale of Venice), Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), FL, USA
Liliana Porter: Drum Solo, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
Liliana Porter: Other Situations, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA
Linha Do Tempo: Liliana Porter, Galería Luciana Brito, São Paulo, Brazil
Liliana Porter, ART OMI, Ghent, NY, USA
2017
Liliana Porter, Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, UK
Liliana Porter, ART OMI, Ghent, NY, USA
Linha Do Tempo, Liliana Porter, Galería Luciana Brito, São Paulo, Brazil
Liliana Porter: Other Situations, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, GA, USA
Liliana Porter, Diálogos y desobediencias, Artium /Basque Museum Center of Contemporary Art, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Relatos Complices II: Works in Collaboration by Liliana Porter/Ana Tiscornia, Galería del Paseo, Manantiales, Montevideo, Uruguay
Liliana Porter: One Wall, One Work, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
Liliana Porter: The Order of Things and Other Works, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Accomplices: Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Relatos Cómplices II: Works in Collaboration by Liliana Porter / Ana Tiscornia, Galería del Paseo, Manantiales, Uruguay
2016
Liliana Porter: Actualidades / Breaking News, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Liliana Porter: Actualidades/ Breaking News, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Liliana Porter, Actualidades / Breaking News, Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain
Liliana Porter, Museo Caraffa, Cordoba, Argentina
Relatos Cómplices: Liliana Porter/Ana Tiscornia, Beatriz Gil Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela
2015
Liliana Porter, Museo de Bellas Artes de Neuquén (MNBA), Argentina
Liliana Porter: To See Gold and other prints, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Liliana Porter, Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes Franklin Rawson, San Juan, Argentina
Liliana Porter, Dialogue with Blue Mug, pick nick Works, Dandilands, Artemis Trail, Troodos, Cyprus
Liliana Porter, Selección de obra temprana y una reflexión desde el presente, Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay
Liliana Porter: Reparar el piano y otros compromisos, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2014
Entreactos: Situaciones Breves, Teatro Sarmiento, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Liliana Porter, El Hombre con el hacha y otras situciones breves, Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ), Guadalajara, Mexico
Untitled (shadows) 1969-2014, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
2013
The Square and other early works, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
El hombre con el hacha y otras situaciones breves, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico
Liliana Porter, Museo Rayo, Roldanillo, Colombia
Liliana Porter, 1973, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
2012
Fragment of the Cast, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Liliana Porter, Galerie Mor-Charpentier, Paris, France
Disguise, Caja Negra, Madrid, Spain
Conejo que levita y otras obras recientes, Centro Cultura de España, Santiago, Chile
Recent Work, Baginski Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
The Task, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Liliana Porter, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
2011
Liliana Porter, New Work, Hosfelt Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Enemy e Outros Olhares Obliquos (The Enemy & Other Oblique Gazes), Galería Luciana Brito, São Paulo, Brazil; Galería Lucia de la Puente, Lima, Peru
Situations with Levitating Rabbit, Galería Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain; Galería del Paseo, Manantiales, Montevideo, Uruguay
2010
New Works, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI, USA
2009
Matiné, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
To Sweep, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Trabajo forzado, Toll Gallery, Montevideo, Uruguay
Línea de Tiempo / Time Line, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City. Mexico
Liliana Porter, Simmons Visual Art Center, Brenau University, Gainesville, GA, USA
2008
Liliana Porter, Fox in the Mirror, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Liliana Porter, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
To See Blue, Galería Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil
Levitating Rabbit, Leo Fortuna Gallery, Hudson, NY, USA
Liliana Porter, Hosfelt Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2007
From a Drawing Standpoint, Leo Fortuna Gallery, Hudson, NY, USA
Liliana Porter, Hosfelt Gallery, New York, NY, USA
For Instance, Galleria Valentina Bonomo, Rome, Italy
To See Red, Galería Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain
2006
Red with Eagle, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Recent Works, Goya-Girl Contemporary, Baltimore, MD, USA
For Instance, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2005
Girl with Rubber Dog and other Situations, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Eventos Breves, Sala de Verónicas, Murcia, Spain
Deer/Dear y otros raros encuentros, Galería Petrus, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Palacio Véronicas, Murcia, Spain
Ellos y algunos otros, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Fictions and Other Realities, Georgia State University Ernst G Welch School of Art and Design Gallery, Atlanta, GA, USA (Two-person collaboration between Liliana Porter and Ana Tiscornia)
Diálogo con tetera y otros raros encuentros, Casas Reigner Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia
2004
For You, Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Eventos Breves, Palacio Aguirre, Cartagena, Spain.
Inter-missions, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Liliana Porter: Brief Events, Eli Marsh Gallery, Amherst College, MA, USA
2003
Eventos breves, Palacio Aguirre, Cartagena, Spain; Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain
To Blink, Casas Riegner Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
Liliana Porter: Una puesta en Imagines, Teorética, San José, Costa Rica
Dot and Others, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Liliana Porter: Fotografia y Ficción, Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo Castagnino, Rosario, Argentina
2002
Please, Don’t Move! Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
To Go Back, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2001
For You / Para Usted, Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
To Say Something, Galería Brito Cimino, São Paulo, Brazil
2000
Liliana Porter, Sicardi-Sanders Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Liliana Porter, Espacio Mínimo, Murcia, Spain
Liliana Porter, Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Liliana Porter: Recent Works, Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY, USA
The Space Inside the Mirror, Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, USA
Liliana Porter, Emiso Art Center Gallery, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA
The Secret Lives of Toys: Liliana Porter Photographs, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, USA
Drum Solo/ Solo de Tambor, Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain
1999
For You / Para Usted, Projects, ARCO, Madrid, Spain; Annina Nosei Gallery, New York, NY; Blue Star Artspace, San Antonio, TX, USA
Liliana Porter, Artcore Gallery, Toronto, Canada
1998
Ellos y algunos otros, Espacio Mínimo, Murcia, Spain
Arte Poética, University Art Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York, NY, USA
1997
Fotografías Galería Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Diálogos, Museo de Bellas Artes Juan Manuel Blanes, Montevideo, Uruguay
Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, OH, USA
Amelita Fortabat, Buenos Aires, Argentina
American Express, Miami, FL, USA
A.T. & T. Corporation, New York, NY, USA
La Biblioteque Nationale, Paris, France
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
Booz, Allen & Company, New York, NY, USA
Boras Konstmuseum, Sweden
British Museum, London, UK
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Bronx Museum for the Arts, Bronx, NY, USA
Brown, Wood, Ivy, Petty & Mitchell, New York, NY, USA
Casa de las Américas, Habana, Cuba
Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY, USA
Chase Manhattan Bank, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chase Manhattan Bank, Hong Kong
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY, USA
Clouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal
Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland
Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley, MA, USA
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA
Estee Lauder Collection, New York, NY, USA
FEMSA Collection, Monterrey, Mexico
Fidelity Investments, Boston, MA, USA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
Foote, Cone & Belding, New York, NY, USA
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN, USA
I.B.M. Corporation, Endicott, NY, USA
Instituto de Cultura, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Instituto Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
International Graphic Art Society, New York, NY, USA
Kelly, Drye & Warren, New York, NY, USA
LeBouef, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, New York, NY, USA
Marion and Jorge Helft Collection, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA
Microsoft Art Collection, Redmond, WA, USA
Ministry of Culture Francaise, Belgium
Munson Williams Proctor Fine Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, NY, USA
Musee D'Art Contemporaine, Montreal, Canada
Musee D'Art, Lodz, Poland
Museo Castagnino-Marco, Rosario, Argentina
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, A.C. Mexico
Museo de Arte Contemporâneo, Murcia, Spain
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Panama City, Panama
Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá, Colombia
Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo de Arte Moderno, Cali, Colombia
Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
Museo de Bellas Artes, Santander, Spain
Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA
Museo del Grabado, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (MEIAC), Badajoz, Spain
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo Universitario, Mexico City, Mexico
Museu da Gravura, Curitiba, Brazil
Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, USA
Museum of Contemporary Graphic Art, Fredrikstad, Norway
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Needham Harper Worldwide, New York, NY, USA
News Corporation United, New York, NY, USA
The New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA
Pepper, Hamilton & Scheets, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phillip Morris Collection, New York, NY, USA
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA
RCA Corporation
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA
Southeast Banking Corporation
Tate Modern, London, UK
Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, CA, USA
Weatherspoon Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, USA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Anonymous female artisans from Chile, Tania Bruguera, Cristina Hernández Botero, Margarita Cabrera, Melissa Calderón, Maria Fernanda Cardoso, Melba Carillo, Marta Chilindron, Alessandra Expósito, Iliana Emilia Garcia, Scherezade Garcia, Dulce Gómez, Carmen Herrera, Jessica Kairé, Carmen Lomas Garza, Evelyn López de Guzmán, Anna Maria Maiolino, Glendalys Medina, Ana Mendieta, Marina Núñez del Prado, Liliana Porter, Raquel Rabinovich, Nitza Tufiño
Celina Chatruc interviews Liliana Porter about her parents' influence on her approach to optimism, humor, and imagination.
Celina Chatruc interviews Liliana Porter about her new collaborative video First-Hand Theatre for the New Times.
Liliana Porter discusses with Celina Chatruc the opportunity for reflection during crises.