Marianne Vitale

Marianne Vitale (b. 1973) is a contemporary artist living and working in New York City. She graduated from School of Visual Arts, New York in 1996. For the 2010 Whitney Biennial, Vitale exhibited Patron, a highly acclaimed video piece which centered on contemporary art as an arena of sadomasochism. Since then, Vitale has often focused on sculptural installations of steel railroad components sourced from US track yards. Drawing from a heritage of Minimalist and Monumental sculptors, Vitale excavates American detritus such as railroad infrastructure, burned bridges and torn down outhouses. Her ability to bludgeon utilitarian material into works of extraordinary heft—in both their weight and vigor—retells their becoming and invention. Such manipulation creates a formal link between past and present, continually recalling the dark undertones of westward expansion and traditional notions of America. For the Performa 13 Biennial, Vitale was commissioned to produce The Missing Book of Spurs, a performance set in a saloon/brothel/weather station. Her work has been exhibited throughout New York including The High Line; The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Journal Gallery; White Columns; Karma; Zach Feuer Gallery; The Sculpture Center; Invisible-Exports; The Elaine de Kooning House, East Hampton; and Performa. Across the United States her work has appeared at The Contemporary Austin, Texas; Venus Over Los Angeles; Various Small Fires, LA; and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Overseas presentations include Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers; UKS, Oslo; Tensta Kunsthall, Stockholm; Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria; Kling & Bang, Iceland; Saatchi Gallery, London.