Steve McQueen
Opening May 12, 2024, Dia Beacon
Overview
For more than 30 years, artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen has continually investigated the possibilities inherent in film—as a material, a documentary tool, and a storytelling medium—resulting in work that is formally inventive and politically pointed. Using projected light and sound, much like a sculptor or a painter, McQueen situates his films and videos within installations that resonate on multiple levels, extending beyond the conventional frame of cinema.
At Dia Beacon, the artist presents a new work, co-commissioned by Dia and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, in which he builds on past experiments into how light, color, and sound affect and upend our perception of space, time, and ourselves. Bass (2024) comprises 60 ceiling-mounted lightboxes that journey through the complete spectrum of visible light in concert with a sonic component. As the light changes color slowly, almost imperceptibly, it floods the subterranean space, while the sound—made entirely with bass instruments—reverberates off the gallery’s concrete surfaces, transforming the 30,000-square-foot gallery into an immersive environment. Recorded on-site in response to the space and conducted by McQueen, the music was created in collaboration with an intergenerational group of musicians led by renowned bassist Marcus Miller and featuring Meshell Ndegeocello, Aston Barrett Jr., Mamadou Kouyaté, and Laura-Simone Martin.
With no moving image component, Bass uses only the most basic, structural elements of film—light and sound—to effectively sculpt Dia Beacon’s lower level and offer an experience that both speaks to the past and to new ways of being.
The co-commission is accompanied by a catalog, co-published with Schaulager, documenting the development of the work alongside essays and illustrations. Following Dia Beacon, the commission will travel to Schaulager where it will be adapted to the institution’s unique exhibition spaces.
The exhibition at Dia Beacon is complemented by a concurrent presentation of McQueen’s Sunshine State (2022) as well as a new work at Dia Chelsea, opening September 20, 2024.
Steve McQueen is co-commissioned by Dia Art Foundation and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel, 2023.
Steve McQueen is curated by Donna De Salvo, senior adjunct curator, special projects, with Emily Markert, curatorial assistant, and Randy Gibson, manager of exhibition technology.
The artist and curatorial team wish to thank ALIA Productions, CoveyLaw, Curtis Harvey, Andra Kouyaté, Sue MacDiarmid, Renée Missel, Tom Carroll Scenery, and Courtney Smith.
All exhibitions at Dia are made possible by the Economou Exhibition Fund.
Dia’s two-part presentation of Steve McQueen is made possible by major support from Ford Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, and Brenda R. Potter. Significant support by the Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Generous support by Dia’s Director’s Council and additional support by The Imperfect Family Foundation, Dawn and David Lenhardt, and Visiolite.
Steve McQueen was born in London in 1969. Surveys of his work have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel (2012–13); Tate Modern, London (2020); and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2022). Recent solo presentations include those at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); the Art Institute of Chicago (2017); Museum of Modern Art,New York (2017); Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2017); Whitworth Art Gallery,Manchester (2017); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2017–18); Tate Britain,London (2019–21); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2023). McQueen has participated in Documenta X (1997) and XI (2002), as well as the Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, 2013, and 2015), representing Great Britain in 2009. He isthe recipient of numerous awards, including the Turner Prize (1999); W. E. B. DuBois Medal, Harvard University (2014); and Johannes Vermeer Award (2016). He was declared Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2002, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2011, and Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order in 2020.
McQueen directed the feature films Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2014), and Widows (2018); as well as the series Small Axe (2020), an anthology of five films shown on the BBC and Amazon; and Uprising (2021), a three-part documentary series for the BBC. His documentary Occupied City (2023) is based on the book Atlas van een bezette stad: Amsterdam 1940-1945 (Atlas of an Occupied City: Amsterdam 1940–1945, 2019) by Bianca Stigter. McQueen won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for Hunger in 2008 and an Oscar for Best Motion Picture for 12 Years a Slave in 2014.
McQueen lives in Amsterdam and London.
Artist
Steve McQueen
(1969)
Steve McQueen was born in 1969 in London, where he currently lives.