Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) is a world-renowned Los Angeles–based artist who tackles contemporary culture with criticality and wit. Taking cues from our image-saturated cultures, Kruger interrogates the hierarchies of power and control in works that often combine visual and written language. As an active consumer and vigilant viewer of popular culture, Kruger grapples with the accelerated ways pictures and words instantaneously flow through media. Co-organized with the Art Institute Chicago, LACMA, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the exhibition spans four decades and features 33 works, including Kruger’s single-channel videos from the 1980s, digital productions of the last two decades, large-scale vinyl room wraps, multichannel video installations, and audio soundscapes throughout LACMA’s campus. Further, the exhibition includes new video works that re-imagine the artist’s most iconic vinyl pieces. Curated at LACMA by Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, and Rebecca Morse, Curator, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, this exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Kruger’s work in 20 years.

“Barbara Kruger’s art, and her dialogue with advertising and propaganda and human nature, is ‘essential reading’ for anyone who wants insight into our modern culture,” said Michael Govan. “We are thrilled that Kruger’s influential and distinctive visual language will take over LACMA’s campus in March, including new works that will be integrated into our buildings and onto our facades, bringing the artist’s work out to the street and to a wider public.”

“Kruger’s work is perfect for this moment of re-examining contemporary society. Seeing Kruger’s works, some familiar and some new, throughout the entire second floor of BCAM will be an act of discovery, ” said Rebecca Morse. “Renowned for her use of direct address and her engagement with contemporary culture, Kruger is one of the most incisive and courageous artists working today. This exhibition explores how her pictures and words remain urgently resonant in a rapidly changing world.”

Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. opened at the Art Institute of Chicago (September 19,2021-January 24,2022).Following its presentation in Los Angeles, a version of the exhibition will travel to the Museum of Modern Art(July 16,2022-January 2,2023).

This exhibition is part of The Hyundai Project at LACMA, a joint initiative between Hyundai Motor Company and LACMA since 2015.