The Estate of Dennis Oppenheim

American, 1938–2011

Always an innovator, Dennis Oppenheim was an early practitioner of earthworks, body art, and conceptual art. As time passed, he became increasingly known for his ambitious public installations and sculptures.

Oppenheim’s work encapsulates the issues that populate contemporary art discourse from the 1960s to present. He concerned himself with the real world and real-time systems versus artifice; noncommercial, nonsalable works of art versus art as a product for the market; the uses of photography and text; and notions of site-specificity. In a series of works produced between 1970 and 1974, Oppenheim used his own body as his medium, exploring the boundaries of personal risk, transformation, and communication. In 1981, his work moved in a new direction with the “machine pieces”—complex constructions that functioned as metaphors for the artistic process. By the mid-80s, he based his sculptures on the transformation of everyday objects. From the mid-90s until his passing, Oppenheim focused on the creation of large-scale, permanent structures that fused sculpture and architecture.

Oppenheim has been showcased in solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA (1973, 1984); Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (1975); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1983, 2003); Tel Aviv Museum, Israel (1984); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA (1997); Montoro12 Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy (2013); Storm King Center, New York (2016); and the Art Institute of Chicago, IL (2016). Oppenheim’s work is held in public collections throughout the world, including: the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Tel Aviv Museum, Israel; Tate Modern, London, U.K.; and Samsung Foundation of Art and Culture, Seoul, Korea.

Artist CV (PDF)
Works
Exhibitions
- Exhibitions
  Dennis Oppenheim: 1968: Earthworks and Ground Systems
  May 31 - July 14, 2012
  As an early practitioner of Land Art, Body Art and Conceptual Art, Dennis Oppenheim cultivated an innovative career spanning 50 years. Over time he expanded his practice to include ambitious...
News
- News
  Dennis Oppenheim
  Museum Exhibition
  Collection Focus: Light Play
  Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL
  April 10 - October 6, 2024
  Throughout art history, light has been an important focal point across different mediums. Collection Focus: Light Play is a series of works that have been a part of MOCA’s permanent...
Press
“Tehran museum to reopen with works by artists who protested Vietnam War,” Tehran Times, January 27, 2021

William Menking, "Lebbeus Woods, Dennis Oppenheim, and Krzysztof Wodiczko projects featured at Slought Foundation," The Architects Newspaper, April 10, 2017

William Corwin, “Just Trying to Fit In,” The Brooklyn Rail, September 1, 2016

David Ebony, “A Dialogue with Nature: Dennis Oppenheim at Storm King,” Art in America, July 15, 2016

Susan Hodara, "At Storm King, a Landscape of Stars, Rulers and Pipes," The New York Times, June 24, 2016

Thomas Gebremedhin, "Dennis Oppenheim Show Opens at Storm King," The Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2016

Scott Indrisek, "Getting Skewed at Storm King with Dennis Oppenheim and Josephine Halvorson," Blouin ArtInfo, May 16, 2016

Hilarie M. Sheets, "Storm King to Present Earthworks by Dennis Oppenheim," The New York Times, November 26, 2015

"Dennis Oppenheim: Systems of Information Rather Than Abstract Gestures," Artlyst, June 4, 2014

Thomas Mitchell, "Homage to Absurdity: The Restless Legacy of Dennis Oppenheim," Hyperallergic, May 14, 2014

Martin Shaw, "Dennis Oppenheim Strange New 'Tree' Exhibition Opens at Yorkshire Sculpture Park," The Huddersfield Daily Examiner, November 22, 2013

Joe Jarrell, "A Step-by-Step View of Artist Dennis Oppenheim as he Prepared for a Recent Los Angeles Exhibition of his Traveling Retrospective Show," Joe Jarrell Review, 2012

Christian L. Frock, "Information Changes as Surface Conditions Change: Dennis Oppenheim at Haines," KQED Arts, June 12, 2012

David Ebony, "Dennis Oppenheim: Edelman Arts," Art in America, 2008

Robert Stearns, "Dennis Oppenheim: Public Action," Sculpture Magazine, October 2008

"Dennis Oppenheim: The Assembly Line," Sculpture Magazine, April 2008

Elizabeth Lynch, "Dennis Oppenheim: Wave Forms," Sculpture Magazine, January/February 2008

"The AI Interview: Dennis Oppenheim," Art Info., Oct 4, 2006