Suzanne Treister

Suzanne Treister (b.1958, London) studied at St Martin's School of Art, London (1978-1981) and Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (1981-1982). She is based in London and  previously lived in Australia, New York and Berlin.

Initially recognized in the 1980s as a painter, she became a pioneer in the digital/new media/web based field from the beginning of the 1990s, making work about emerging technologies, developing fictional worlds and international collaborative organisations. Utilising various media, including video, the internet, interactive technologies, photography, drawing and watercolour, Treister has evolved a large body of work which engages with eccentric narratives and unconventional bodies of research to reveal structures that bind power, identity and knowledge. Often spanning several years, her projects comprise fantastic reinterpretations of given taxonomies and histories that examine the existence of covert, unseen forces at work in the world, whether corporate, military or paranormal. An ongoing focus of her work is the relationship between new technologies, society, alternative belief systems and the potential futures of humanity.

Treister’s work was recently presented in solo and group exhibitions at the 7th Athens Biennale (GR), Muzeum Sztuki (Lodz, PL), the 34th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts (SI), Kunstmuseum Appenzell (CH), Schirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt, GE), the Yerevan Biennial (AM), the Istanbul Biennial (TR), Moderna Museet (SE), the Busan Biennale (KR), the Capc - Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux (FR), the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia (EKKM) (Tallinn, EE), CCCB: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (ES), ZKM: Zentrum für Kunst und Medien (Karlsruhe, DE), The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) (Dublin, IE), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin, DE), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (CA), the Liverpool Biennial (UK), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK), Bildmuseet (Umeå, SE), the Bard Hessel Museum (New York, US), Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) (London, UK), Centre Pompidou (Paris, FR), Kunstverein München (DE), SMBA (Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam) (NL), Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna, AT), Der Hartware MedienKunstVerein (HMKV) (Dortmund, DE), the 10th Shanghai Biennale (CN) and the 8th Montréal Biennale (CA). 

Commissions and Awards include the Digital Commission of the Serpentine Galleries (London, UK), the COLLIDE International Award (CERN Geneva/FACT UK), and The Spaceships of Bordeaux Public art project - Commande artistique Garonne, (Bordeaux, FR).

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