Biography of Harmony Korine
Harmony Korine's multifaceted practice spans anything from experimental films, zines, and skateboards through to artist books and photographs. Notorious for the unsettling content of his oeuvre, Korine explores disturbing themes such as youth violence, mental disorder, drug abuse, and AIDs in non-linear works instilled with a distinct sense of the bizarre. It is with this troubling, uneasy subject matter that Korine made a name for himself as the enfant terrible of avant-garde cinema.
Harmony Korine's award-winning cinematic work encompasses cult films such as Kids, 1995 and Gummo, 1997, for which he won the respect of noted filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant, and Bernardo Bertolucci whilst his more recent film Spring Breakers, 2013 starred the likes of James Franco. Korine's limited edition photographs frequently reference his moving image productions, reimagining motifs and themes in a variety of different mediums in a characteristically self-referential manner. His collaborative book project with fellow artist Christopher Wool Pass the Bitch Chicken consisted of a series of heavily reworked photographs by Korine, whilst Ho Bags, a collaboration with New York-based Bill Saylor, took the form of a bound collection of drawings and paintings in which the two artists drew over each other's works.
Born in California in 1973, Harmony Korine has directed music videos for Sonic Youth and Cat Power as well as collaborating on songs with Björk and Lana del Ray. In addition, he created a commercial for Dior's perfume Addict in 2014. As radical as always in his artistic practice, however, Korine stays true to his experimental underground roots to continually push the boundaries of both cinema and art, stating that "film is like a dead art because of people not taking chances." Korine has been honored with several solo shows including Harmony Korine: Photos and Video Installation at the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK) in Ghent, Belgium. His work was included in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.