VENICE.- In cooperation with the Written Art Foundation of Frankfurt, Germany, under the scientific coordination of Gabriella Belli, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia announces an exhibition of paintings by the American conceptual artist Jenny Holzer. A collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale, the Correr show opened on May 7, 2015 and remains on view through November 22, 2015. The works on exhibit at Museo Correr have been selected from a decade of the artist’s war paintings, a significant departure from the LED installations for which Holzer is best known. Curated by Dr. Thomas Kellein, a special catalogue has been published in collaboration with the artist.

The exhibition takes as its starting point declassified and other sensitive U.S. government documents concerning the global War on Terror that followed the events of September 11, 2001, as well as the United States military operations in Afghanistan an Iraq. Holzer’s paintings are drawn from memoranda, planning maps, diplomatic communiqués, interrogation records, autopsy reports, and the handwritten cri de coer of detainees themselves – which prior to release to the public, the censor heavily redacted.

The transformation of documents into ravishing silk-screened and hand-painted oil on linen paintings (several times their original size) invites the visitor both to read and to look. Critics have compared Holzer’s painted work to Andy Warhol’s early 1960s Death and Disaster series, the works of Russian Suprematist Kazimir Malevich, Abstract Expressionism, the “dust writing” of Arabic calligraphy, and even the anonymous street posters that began Holzer’s carrer with her hope they might provoke thoughtful discussion and lively public debate.

As Holzer explained her decision to begin painting a decade ago, in an interview with Stuart Jeffries of the Guardian: “I wanted to show time and care. I wanted it to be human”. Adding that although she feels “the material speaks for itself…having torture seemingly normalized is, I don’t think, a positive thing.”

Holzer’s work was first shown in Venice as the official entry of the United States at the 44th Biennale, where it was awarded the Golden Lion. In addition to Holzer’s participation in the 1990 Biennale, in 1999, five evenings of prejections were presented at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore; and in 2003, projections were realized on the Grand Canal facades of the Palazzo Corner and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Three of Holzer’s Benches are part of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum’s permanent collection, where they may be found in the garden. The artist lives and works in New York.

For more than thirty-five years, Jenny Holzer has presented her astringent ideas, arguments, and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions, including 7 World Trade Center, the Venice Biennale, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her medium, whether formulated as a T-shirt, a plaque, or an LED sign, is writing, and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work. Starting in the 1970s with the New York City posters, and continuing through her recent light projections on landscape and architecture, her practice has rivaled ignorance and violence with humor, kindness, and courage. Holzer received the Leone d’Oro at the Venice Biennale in 1990, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award in 1996, and the Barnard Medal of Distinction in 2011. She holds honorary degrees from Ohio University, Williams College, the Rhode Island School of Design, The New School, and Smith College. She lives and works in New York.