Through a complex research-oriented practice, Allora & Calzadilla critically address the intersections and complicities between the cultural, the historical and the geopolitical. The interdisciplinary nature of their interventions is echoed by an expanded use of the artistic medium that includes performance, sculpture, sound, video and photography. Their dynamic engagement with the art historical results in an acute attention to both the conceptual and the material, the metaphoric as well as the literal.

The Puerto Rico-based artists have studied the ephemeral nature of collective drawing with monumental sticks of chalk at the Biennial de Lima, Peru (Chalk [Lima], 1998–2002); the imprints of colonial, nationalist, and military violence on the diverse populations and landscapes of Vieques, Puerto Rico (Land Mark (Foot Prints), 2001–2002; Land Mark, 2003; Returning a Sound, 2004; Under Discussion, 2006 and Half Mast/Full Mast, 2011); and the resonance of playing, warping and combining music from various moments in history (Clamor, 2006; Wake Up, 2007; Sediments Sentiments- Figures of Speech, 2008; Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano, 2008; Raptor’s Rapture, 2012; Apotomē, 2013; 3, 2013); as well as the entanglement between biophysics, semiotics and actuality (Growth, 2004; Puerto Rican Light: Cueva Vientos, 2015).

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1974, Jennifer Allora received a BA from the University of Richmond in Virginia, USA (1996) and an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA (2003). Guillermo Calzadilla was born in 1971 in Havana, Cuba and received a BFA from Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, Puerto Rico (1996) and an MFA from Bard College, USA (2001). Collaborating since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla represented the USA in the 54th Venice Biennale, Italy (2011). Solo exhibitions include Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (2019); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (2019); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico (2018); Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain (2018); MAXXI, Rome, Italy (2018); Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia (2018); Art Gallery of Alberta, Canada (2016); Dia Art Foundation, Guayanilla-Peñuelas, Puerto Rico (2015); Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA (2014); Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA (2012); Haus der Kunst München, Munich, Germany (2008); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2008); Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2007); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA (2004). Among numerous group exhibitions, they participated in the 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2014), Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany (2012), Performance 9 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2011) and the 29th São Paulo Biennial, Brazil (2010).

Shikeith is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and now lives and works in Pittsburgh, PA. He received a BA from The Pennsylvania State University (2010) and an MFA in Sculpture from The Yale School of Art (2018). Within overlapping practices of visual art and film making, he investigates the experiences of black men within and around concepts of psychic space. He has shared his work nationally and internationally through recent exhibitions and screenings that include The Language Must Not Sweat, Locust Projects, Miami, FL; Notes Towards Becoming A Spill, Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA; Shikeith: This was his body/His body finally his, MAK Gallery, London, UK; Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; A Drop of Sun Under The Earth, MOCA LA, Los Angeles, CA; Labor Relations, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Poland; and Black Intimacy: An Evening With Shikeith, MoMA, New York, NY. He is a 2019 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grants.

Terence Koh was born in 1977 in Beijing, China and grew up in Mississauga, Canada. He received his Bachelor degree from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver. He is currently living in New York City. In 2008, he was listed in Out magazine’s “100 People of the Year”, and was short listed for the SOBEY awards. He has exhibited widely around the United States and extensively abroad. In his installations, objects, wall pieces, and performances, Terence Koh creates a space in which memory and imagination mix with art history and subculture. He explores such diverse subjects as mythology, religion, identity, power, fashion and sexuality, in an often provocative manner, charged with possible symbolic readings. He is most well-known for his monochromatic installations, and ritualistic performances.

David Hammons was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1943. He moved to Los Angeles in 1963 attending Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts) from 1966 – 1968 and the Otis Art Institute from 1968 – 1972. In 1974 Hammons settled in New York City. Influenced by Arte Povera, Hammons’s work speaks of cultural overtones; employing provocative materials such as elephant dung, chicken parts, strands of hair, and bottles of cheap wine. Centered in the black urban experience, Hammons often uses sarcasm as a means of confronting cultural stereotypes and racial issues. Hammons was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in July 1991. Hammons’s work is collected by major public and private institutions internationally, among them: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge; Glenstone, Potomac; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; SMAK, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent; Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; Francois Pinault Foundation, Venice; and Tate Britain, London.