Born Jerusalem, 1977, lives and works in New York
Since featuring with mother’s tankstation at Art Statements, Art 42 Basel in 2011, with his iconic investigation of language and its functions, A to Z (that stops at Q), Uri Aran’s work has quickly gained prominence, reaching an international audience that widely acknowledges the intellectual depth of his practice, as well as its precise, but often complex and delicate aesthetics. Through a variety of mediums, including sculptural installation, video and the core discipline of drawing, his work interrogates structures and models of organisation and categorisation. Once describing his practice as “bureaucratic formalism”, or as a creation of a kind of personal topography, Aran investigates how linguistic structures and looped patterns inform the construction of identity in the contemporary world. His thoughtful and often humorous works appear as though constructed in statements that sound like questions, and questions that refract the infinite potential of questioning: “The discord of meaning in language is something I’m interested in. I don’t know if it’s because English is not my mother tongue; I see a delay of meaning. I see things as mediated—almost everything is quoted.” Aran’s work indicatively hinges on invented taxonomies or the unpicking of anticipated sociological patterns, suggesting the pathos of organizing knowledge into legible systems.
Aran’s solo exhibitions include: The Fastest Boy in the World, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York (2021); HOUSE, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York (2020); Tenants Like These, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); Mice, Kölnischer Kunstverein (2016); Puddles, Peep Hole, Milan (2014); Five Minutes Before, South London Gallery, London, (2013) and here, here and here, Kunsthalle Zürich (2013). He has also participated in the Liverpool Biennial (2014); the Whitney Biennial (2014) and was featured in the International Pavilion of Massimiliano Gioni’s The Encyclopedic Palace at the Venice Biennale (2013). Other solo exhibitions and events include: Online Moving Image Commission, Walker Arts Centre, Minneapolis (2016); Multi-coloured Blue, Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Rome (2015); A to Z, Art Statements, Art 42, Basel, with mother’s tankstation (2011); and Doctor Dog Sandwich and Ones at mother’s tankstation, Dublin (2010 and 2015). Notable group shows include; Platforms: Commission and Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); Take Me (I’m Yours) at The Jewish Museum, New York (2016); Question the Wall Itself, Walker Art Center (2016); The Mud of Compound Experience, Hong Kong, mother’s tankstation (2016); do it, touring exhibition and catalogue, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist (2015); Empire State, curated by Alex Gartenfeld & Noram Rosenthal, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2013). Uri Aran’s work is the subject of an important monograph published by Kunsthalle Zürich (2015) and a dedicated issue of SOLO magazine (2015). Aran’s first institutional exhibition in Ireland Take This Dog For Example opened at The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin in March 2023.