Vito Acconci (Paperback)

Acconci is among the first artists to have adopted video, a medium which has gained enormous currency in contemporary art. Since 1974 he no longer places his own body within his artworks but has continued exploring themes of the individual's body in relation to experimental architectural environments. An evergreen, iconoclastic figure, Acconci continues to have a broad following for his work, from art and architecture students to senior museum curators, who recognize his daring and revolutionary contribution to the course of late twentieth-century art.

Acconci's solo exhibitions include the Whitney Museum of American Art (1983) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1981). His work featured in seminal group exhibitions such as Documentas 5 and 7 (1972 and 1982), the Venice Biennale (1976) and 'Information' (The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970). The work of his architectural practice established in 1988, Acconci Studio, was featured in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2001).

Vito Acconci is among the key late twentieth-century artists who expanded the boundaries of art beyond painting and sculpture, bringing art out of the gallery or museum into shared public spaces. Initially a poet, Acconci became involved with the New York Conceptual art scene in the late 1960s. Hiswriting began to take the form of instructions or descriptions for activities which the artist would then perform. He would, for example, wander down a street, choose people at random and follow them (Following Piece, 1969); or perform basic activities repetitively, such as attempting to catch a ball while blindfolded (Adaptation Study -- Blindfolded Catching, 1970). These activities were at first documented by texts and photographs but as soon as video became available Acconci pioneered its use as an art medium. In 1972 he produced the most famous performance installation of the 1970s, Seedbed. In Manhattan's pristine white Sonnabend Gallery, Acconci built a low ramp, subtly raising the wooden floor. Concealed underneath it, Acconci stimulated himself with sexual fantasies about viewers walking in the empty gallery above, speaking his fantasies into a microphone linked to loudspeakers. Spectators unexpectedly found themselves implicated in an intimate power relationship between the artist and the viewer.

From 1974 Acconci no longer to place his own body at the centre of his work. He continued investigating social themes with installations in which viewers could create private spaces in the midst of public areas. Since the mid 1980s his work has turned towards experimental architectural projects. In 1988 he set up the architectural practice Acconci Studio. Some of Acconci Studio's projects include Flying Floors for Ticketing Pavilion, Terminal B/C, Philadelphia Airport (1998) and Screens for a Walkway, Shibuya Station, Tokyo (2000).

Like Dan Graham, Acconci is a key artist of the 1960s generation, equally of interest to the art and architecture worlds. He participated in thelandmark exhibitions 'Information' at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1970), Documenta in 1972 and 1982, and the 1976 Venice Biennale. His retrospectives include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1981) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (1983). Acconci Studio has public commissions around the world and was featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2001.