Dave Hullfish Bailey
Dave Hullfish Bailey | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 (age 62–63) Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
| Education | Carleton College (BA) Harvard Divinity School (MTS) Art Center College of Design (MFA) Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture |
| Known for | Sculpture, installation art, artist books |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (2018) |
Dave Hullfish Bailey (born 1963, Denver, Colorado) is an American artist based in Los Angeles. His project-based practice combines sculpture, installation, photography, drawing, text, artist books, and social interventions to investigate the geographic, environmental, and cultural histories embedded in specific sites.[1][2]
Education
Bailey earned a BA in philosophy from Carleton College and holds an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and an MFA from the Art Center College of Design.[1][3] He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.[1]
Work
Bailey's practice centers on what he has described as "speculative geography," a method combining field research, scholarly inquiry, and poetic speculation to examine overlooked landscapes and the social, environmental, and political narratives they contain.[2][4] His sculptural assemblages incorporate diverse materials - livestock feeders, car bumpers, maps, roofing panels, printer supplies, and site-gathered detritus - arranged to establish systems of linguistic and functional relationships.[5] The work addresses themes of land use, human impact on ecological systems, and the politics of place, with frequent reference to the legacy of Robert Smithson.[6]
CityCat Project
Since 2003, Bailey has collaborated with Aboriginal Australian writer and activist Sam Watson on the CityCat Project, an ongoing work of art and land-rights activism based in Brisbane, Australia.[1][7] The central element is the Maiwar Performance, in which CityCat ferries on the Brisbane River (known as Maiwar in the local Aboriginal language) execute unannounced diversions near a site of significance to the Aboriginal people who lived on the surrounding lands before British colonisation. After the first staging in December 2006, Watson designated the performance a contemporary "Dreaming" and authorised it to be periodically repeated. It has been restaged in 2009, 2012, and 2016.[7][8]
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Bailey has held solo exhibitions at institutions including REDCAT, Los Angeles (Hardscrabble, 2018); Saint Louis Art Museum (Currents 117, 2019); Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm (2014); Malmö Konsthall (Broken Country, 2013); Raven Row, London (with Nils Norman, 2009); Secession, Vienna (Elevator, 2006); and Casco, Utrecht (2007).[2][1][9]
Group exhibitions and biennials
His work has been included in a number of international biennials, among them the 30th Bienal de São Paulo (The Imminence of Poetics, 2012),[10] the Busan Biennale (2020),[11] the Biennale de Lyon (2007), the Socle du Monde Biennial, Herning (2004), and the first Berlin Biennale/Plattform (1998).[1] Additional group exhibitions have been held at venues including the ICA, London; De Appel, Amsterdam; Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Culturgest, Lisbon; and Brisbane Art Design 2019 at the Museum of Brisbane.[1][12]
Publications
Bailey is the author of several artist books, including Union Pacific: Berlin's Neue Mitte and the Fringes of Las Vegas (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 1999), Elevator (Secession, Vienna, 2006), and What's Left (Casco/Sternberg Press, Utrecht/Berlin, 2009).[1] A monograph documenting the CityCat Project, edited by Rex Butler, was published by Sternberg Press in 2017.[7] His work has been discussed in anthologies including The Artist As... (Sternberg Press, 2017), Education (Whitechapel/MIT Press, 2011), and Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture (Phaidon, 2010).[1]
Awards and fellowships
In 2018, Bailey received a Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts.[13][14] That same year he was named the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum and Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, a position that included two residencies and the Currents 117 exhibition.[2] Other grants and fellowships include the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist (COLA) Fellowship,[3] a Getty Fellowship in the Visual Arts/California Community Foundation Individual Artist Award, and an NEA Education Fellowship at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.[1] Artist residencies include the International Artists Studio Program in Stockholm (IASPIS) and the International Studio Program at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Dave Hullfish Bailey". Retrieved 2021-04-18.
- ^ a b c d "Dave Hullfish Bailey named 2018-19 Freund Teaching Fellow". The Source, Washington University in St. Louis. 2018-09-12. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
- ^ a b Caperton y Montoya, Will. "Department of Cultural Affairs COLA 2018: City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowships" (PDF). LA Magazine. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-18.
- ^ "Currents 117: Dave Hullfish Bailey". Saint Louis Art Museum. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ "Dave Hullfish Bailey: Hardscrabble". REDCAT. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ Tumlir, Jan (May 2018). "Dave Hullfish Bailey". Artforum International.
- ^ a b c Butler, Rex, ed. (2017). Dave Hullfish Bailey + Sam Watson: CityCat Project 2006–2016. Sternberg Press. ISBN 978-3-95679-298-4.
- ^ Larsen, Lars Bang (November–December 2005). "Dave Hullfish Bailey". Frieze. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ "CV". Dave Hullfish Bailey. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ "30th Sao Paulo Biennial 2012". Biennial Foundation. 2012. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ "Literature meets art in Busan Biennale". The Korea Times. 29 October 2020.
- ^ Brisbane Art Design 2019. Museum of Brisbane. 10 May 2019. ISBN 978-0-9923682-9-6.
- ^ "Guggenheim Foundation Announces 2018 Fellows". Artforum. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 2026-03-11.
- ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation | Dave Hullfish Bailey". Retrieved 2026-03-11.