Paul Pfeiffer: Desiderata
March 3, 2016
Lamar Dodd School of Art
University of Georgia
270 River Road
Athens, GA 30602-7676
Internationally acclaimed new media artist Paul Pfeiffer is now in residence at the University of Georgia as the 2016-2017 Dodd Chair. Holding this position through the Spring of 2017, Pfeiffer will work closely with faculty and students at the University of Georgia, using his appointment at the Lamar Dodd School of Art to conduct interdisciplinary research in the fields of art, sports journalism, and kinesiology. While in residence, Pfeiffer will have two exhibitions at the Dodd Galleries. The first exhibition, set to open March 3, features recent sound and video work and is entitled Paul Pfeiffer: Desiderata. The second, scheduled to open January 27, 2017, will showcase new work made over the course of the coming year, during the artist’s tenure at the Dodd.
Best known for digitally manipulated images of athletes and celebrities, Pfeiffer’s celebrated work in the mediums of installation, photography, and video typically uses extant imageryas an occasion to plumb the depths of contemporary culture, assessing its racial, religious, and technological dimensions. At the same time, Pfeiffer’s acclaimed objects and images function diachronically, establishing profound genealogies that connect contemporary culture and its many particularities—professional sports, televised game shows, Michael Jackson—to the long, seemingly remote histories of art, media, religion, politics and nationhood.
Represented by the Paula Cooper gallery in New York City, Pfeiffer has had numerous solo exhibitions at a diverse array of institutions including The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (2001), the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2001), the Barbican Art Centre in London (2001), Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA (2003), The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (2003), The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu (2003), Gagosian Gallery in New York (2004), MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain (2008), Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2009), and The Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila, Philippines (2015), among others.
Founded in 1970, the Dodd Chair is a short-term appointment of high distinction intended to honor artists of international standing who have achieved an extraordinary record of exhibition. Artists selected for this position teach and work at the Dodd and hold the rank of full professor, following in the footsteps of Elaine de Kooning, Mel Chin, Willie Cole, David Humphrey, and Lola Brooks among others. The Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair was established to honor the Dodd’s first Chair, Lamar Dodd, for whom the art school is named. It is an integral part of the Dodd’s commitment to excellence across disciplinary boundaries and reflects the school’s belief that arts research is an essential component of the academic mission of the University of Georgia.
