Dara Birnbaum
Dara Birnbaum (29 October 1946, Queens, New York – 2 May 2025) was an American video and installation artist based in New York City. A pioneer in media art, she has been critically examining mass media imagery since the 1970s.
Dara Birnbaum earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a B.F.A. in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a Certificate in Video and Electronic Editing from the Video Study Center at the New School for Social Research in New York.
Birnbaum's works have been exhibited worldwide. Major retrospectives and survey exhibitions of her work have been held, including at the Belvedere in Vienna (2024), Prada Aoyama in Tokyo (2023), and the Fondazione Prada in Milan (2023). Additional exhibitions were presented at the Hessel Museum of Art in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York (2022), the Miller Institute of Contemporary Art in Pittsburgh (2022), as well as at the Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves in Porto, Portugal (2010) and the S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent, Belgium (2009). Birnbaum also took part in documenta 7, 8, and 9.
In 1987, she was the first woman in video to receive the prestigious Maya Deren Award from the American Film Institute for her work in video. In recognition of her achievements, the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University established the Birnbaum Award in 2017.
- Publications
- Dara Birnbaum, eds. Eleonora Louis and Toni Stooss, Vienna: Kunsthalle Wien, 2005, 167 pp. Exhibition.
- T.J. Demos, Dara Birnbaum. Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, Afterall Books (One Work), 2010, 118 pp. [2]
- Dara Birnbaum: The Dark Matter of Media Light, eds. Karen Kelly, Barbara Schroder, and Giel Vandecaveye, Prestel/Delmonico Books, Ghent: S.M.A.K.—Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, and Porto: Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, 2011. Companion volume to the first major retrospective of Dara Birnbaum’s work. Publisher, [3]. Exhibition. [4]
- Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, eds. Lauren Cornell, Elizabeth Chodos, Karen Kelly, and Barbara Schroeder, Brooklyn, NY: Dancing Foxes Press, and CCS Bard, 2022, 176 pp. Text by Erika Balsom, Giampaolo Bianconi, Jordan Carter, Lauren Cornell, Alex Kitnick, and a conversation between Elizabeth and Legacy Russell. Publisher. Exhibition, [5].
- Dara Birnbaum, Milan: Fondazione Prada, 2023, 40 pp. Text by Barbara London; Valentino Catricalà, Eva Fabbris in conversation with Dara Birnbaum. Publisher. Exhibition. Exh. leaflet.
- Links
- EAI
- Marian Goodman Gallery
- AWARE
- MoMA, Whitney, Hammer, ZKM, Reina Sofia, Videomuseum.fr
- Tributes: EAI, Marian Goodman Gallery, Hito Steyerl, Frieze, ArtReview, Carnegie.
