The British born Amsterdam based artist, Steve McQueen, is one of the leading young international contemporary video and filmmakers. Trained in England (Goldsmith College, London) and in the United States (Tisch School of Arts, New York University, 1993-1994) he has been widely exhibited in Europe, and in South America (ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2003; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, Brazil, 2000; Documenta X, Kassel, Germany, 1997) but less so in the United States where his work has been presented at the Art Institute of Chicago (2002) and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1998).

Steve McQueen’s black-and-white silent films draw upon structural filmmaking of the 1960s as well as on performance art to create aesthetically and intellectually compelling works that are rich in cinematic tradition. Most recently in his color video projections, he has focused on historic events in Grenada (Caribs’ Leap, 2002), from where his family originates, and on an interdisciplinary approach between art and science when using existing images from Voyager (1977) and collaborating with scientists from NASA and SETI for Once Upon a Time (2003), his most recent site-specific work, commissioned by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Steve McQueen was the Davis Museum’s artist in residence during the Spring 2004 semester, and presented his works Drumroll (1998), Prey (1999), and Exodus (1992-97). A recipient of the prestigious Turner Prize (1999), his work is included in major public and private collections. This was the artist’s first one-person exhibition in New England.

Dabney Hailey
Former Linda Wyatt Gruber ’66 Curator of Painting, Sculpture, and Photography