Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger is an American Conceptual artist who rose to prominence in the 1980s with works that juxtaposed black-and-white found photographs with bold, invented texts. In her most famous works, she prints wry and earnest slogans like Thinking of You (1999-2000), You are a captive audience (1982), or I shop therefore I am (1987) to convey brief yet pointed criticisms. The use of three colors and the Futura Bold Oblique font is inspired by the politically charged works of Constructivist Alexander Rodchenko.

A keen sense of social engagement pervades all Kruger’s work.“I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are, what we want to be and what we become,” she has said. Like multimedia artist Jenny Holzer, Kruger uses language to broadcast her ideas in a myriad of ways, including prints, T-shirts, posters, photographs, electronic signs, and billboards.

She currently lives and works between New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA. Today, Kruger's works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others.