Allan Sekula

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Biography

Born in 1951 in Erie, Pennsylvania and died in Los Angeles in 2013.

Both artist and critic, Allan Sekula is one of the pioneers of contemporary photography. Starting his artistic career with actions and performance art, his work then turned, in the early 70’s, towards a practice of social documentary, questioning photography as a medium. By conceiving what he called a “critical realism”, Sekula tried to investigate the profound ambiguity of reality, always balanced between truth and fiction. He focused mainly on showing the “performed” everyday life of post-industrial workers and on depicting the sea as a forgotten space of late-capitalism.

Allan Sekula’s work has been exhibited at Beirut Art Center, MoMa (New York), Documenta Kassel, Whitney Biennial (New York), Sao Paulo Biennial, Taipei Biennial, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Whitney Museum (New York), Hirschhorn Museum (Washington DC), New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Winnipeg Art Gallery (Vancouver), The Barbican Centre (London), La Virreina - Centre de la Imatge (Barcelona), MACBA (Barcelona), Generali Foundation (Vienna), Foto Institute (Rotterdam).

His work is part of prestigious collections as MoMa (New York), Whitney Museum (New York), Tate Americas Foundation (New York), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), San Diego Museum of Contemporay Art (La Jolla), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, CNAP - Centre National des Art Plastiques (Paris), FNAC – Fonds National d’Art Contemporain (Paris), IAC – Institut d’Art Contemporain (Villeurbane), MACBA (Barcelona), Museo de Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid).