Statement:

I want to make language into a physical thing, something that has real weight and force to it.

Biography:

Glenn Ligon was born in 1960 in the Bronx, New York. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design for two years and received a BA from Wesleyan University in 1982. In 1985, he participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program. Combining painting, photography, and conceptual practices, Ligon has addressed issues of racial and sexual identity in his work. He first attracted recognition for his paintings in which texts are written in black against white. His Stranger in the Village paintings (2000) use coal dust to lend a racial signification to seemingly abstract paintings. Ligon has had solo shows at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. (1993), Brooklyn Museum of Art (1996), Saint Louis Art Museum (2000), the Studio Museum in Harlem (2001), Dia Center for the Arts in New York (2003), and The Power Plant in Toronto (2005), among others. Photography: Mario Sorrenti