Liza Lou

Liza Lou first gained widespread recognition in 1996 with her seminal, room-sized beaded sculpture *Kitchen*, a work that took five years of solitary labor to complete. Now in the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection, this groundbreaking piece established her practice’s foundational principles of materiality and social commentary, followed by other ambitious, life-size installations like *Back Yard* and *Trailer*.

From 2005 to 2020, Lou established an art studio in Durban, South Africa, collaborating with women skilled in traditional beadwork. This symbiotic exchange yielded works that merged the daily rhythms of rural life with the starkness of Minimalism, manifest in woven paintings, sculptures, and large-scale installations. Upon returning to the Mojave Desert, Lou rediscovered a solitary approach, focusing on color as both subject and object.

Her practice has since expanded to incorporate drawing and painting, yet the bead remains a generative cell within her art, a testament to her enduring commitment to meticulous craft. Lou's work is held in major public collections worldwide, and she is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, underscoring her significant impact on contemporary art.