Biography of Claude Closky
The reputation of the inquisitive and investigative artist Claude Closky is certainly on the rise, and the depth and purpose of his work continues to win him an engaged and ever-increasing audience around the world. Closky constantly strives to question the position of art in contemporary society, examining its effect as a producer of cultural consensus and as a set of values. His work has proven to be remarkably pertinent at confronting the conditions of artistic production and reception.
Claude Closky's work is usually immaterial in that he uses language to articulate text, numbers, images, and in some cases sounds. He prefers to use so-called "poor" means to produce his work, in that it is often using drawing and printed matter. Born in 1963 in Paris, Closky was awarded the prestigious Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2005.
Although receiving no formal training as an artist Claude Closky left the École National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs after his first year to found the street artist collective The Ripoulin Brothers in 1982, alongside such artists as Pierre Huyghe. He would go on to leave the collective in 1988 to concentrate fully on his own practice. Despite not wanting to produce objects or any notable effects, the artist's work addresses the issue of visibility and the appropriation of space. Closky is determined to extricate himself from the formats imposed by the sites where his work is exhibited and in doing so highlights the contradictions inherent in contemporary society and its representations.
Claude Closky has exhibited around the world and been a mainstay of numerous significant biennials. A gallery and magazine that the artist was commissioned to conceive was presented in the Luxembourg Pavilion in the 2001 Venice Biennale. Closky has been teaching at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris since 2005. A celebrated curator, Closky also staged This & There in 2012, an exhibition to celebrate the tenth year of the Pavilion, Palais de Tokyo Laboratory for Creation in Paris.