Michael Stevenson

Biography

Michael Stevenson, The Apply Chair: Apply for Funding, 2023, laser-engraved polyester tufted pile fabric, shredded documents, chipped foam, breathable non-woven polypropylene, metal rings, 1000 x 1000 x 1000mm

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, The Shallow Pond, (detail) 2023, scratched polychromed wood, steel, brass, glass, ceramic, recycled plastic, 2320 x 1260 x 1010mm

Michael Stevenson, The Grantmaker’s Chair, 2023, breathable non-woven polypropylene shredded documents, chipped foam, metal rings, printed polyester, taffeta tape, 1000 x 1000 x 1000mm

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Hold Up to Live Camera, 2021. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist, Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, The Cheap Heat, 2021, (Incl. Color Television Camera Fese KC U 40, 1969/76; Zoom Lens Schneider Variogon, ca. 1967; Loan Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin). Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017/21 Commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA Commission supported by the Contemporary Benefactors of Auckland Art Gallery, Chartwell Trust, Auckland Contemporary Art Trust, Auckland Art Gallery International Ambassadors, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017/21. Commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA Commission supported by the Contemporary Benefactors of Auckland Art Gallery, Chartwell Trust, Auckland Contemporary Art Trust, Auckland Art Gallery International Ambassadors, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle, 2020/21. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy of the artist; Photograph: Frank Sperling

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Signs and Wonders, 2015, zinc chromate conversion coating on steel, aluminium, stretch fabric, screen printed aviation fabric, airline blankets, books, documents, HD video, dimensions variable Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Photograph: Anders Sune Berg

Michael Stevenson, Signs and Wonders, 2015, zinc chromate conversion coating on steel, aluminium, stretch fabric, screen printed aviation fabric, airline blankets, books, documents, HD video, dimensions variable Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Photograph: Anders Sune Berg

Michael Stevenson, Fortune, Dojima River Biennale, 2015 Osaka Original ‘Fortune’ magazine from March 1952, Banco de Guatemala presentation folder, printed paper, plexiglass & various plastics, steel, bronze, plasticine, fabric cloths, 1860 x 1200 x 900 mm Installation view, Dojima River Forum

Michael Stevenson, A Needle Walks into a Haystack, 2014 Installation view, Old Blind School, 8th Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool

Michael Stevenson, Proof of the Devil, 2013 Installation view, Michael Lett, Auckland

Michael Stevenson, Proof of the Devil, 2013 Installation view, Michael Lett, Auckland

Michael Stevenson, …in the Parlance of our Times & The Mouse and the Distressed Seller, 2013, ink on paper, 500 x 400 mm

Michael Stevenson, A Life of Crudity Vulgarity and Blindness, 2012, plexiglas, cardboard, wood, steel, mirror, buttermilk, sunlight. Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Photograph: Helena Schlichting

Michael Stevenson, A Life of Crudity Vulgarity and Blindness, 2012, plexiglas, cardboard, wood, steel, mirror, buttermilk, sunlight. Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Photograph: Helena Schlichting

Michael Stevenson, Art of the Eighties and Seventies, Installation view, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, 2005, clay, soil, steel, steel, wood, 13.7 x 13.7 x 5.8 m, photograph Achim Kukulies

Michael Stevenson, The gift (from ‘Argonauts of the Timor Sea’), 2004–06, aluminium, wood, rope, bamboo, tar, World War Two parachute and National Geographic magazines, Installation view, MCA, Sydney, 2011

Michael Stevenson, This is the Trekka, 2003 Installation view, New Zealand Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale. Photograph Jens Ziehe

Michael Stevenson, Call Me Immendorff, 2000 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, The Grantmaker’s Chair, 2023, breathable non-woven polypropylene shredded documents, chipped foam, metal rings, printed polyester, taffeta tape, 1000 x 1000 x 1000mm

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, The Cheap Heat, 2021, (Incl. Color Television Camera Fese KC U 40, 1969/76; Zoom Lens Schneider Variogon, ca. 1967; Loan Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin). Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017/21. Commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA Commission supported by the Contemporary Benefactors of Auckland Art Gallery, Chartwell Trust, Auckland Contemporary Art Trust, Auckland Art Gallery International Ambassadors, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy of the artist; Photograph: Frank Sperling

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Signs and Wonders, 2015, zinc chromate conversion coating on steel, aluminium, stretch fabric, screen printed aviation fabric, airline blankets, books, documents, HD video, dimensions variable Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Photograph: Anders Sune Berg

Michael Stevenson, Fortune, Dojima River Biennale, 2015 Osaka Original ‘Fortune’ magazine from March 1952, Banco de Guatemala presentation folder, printed paper, plexiglass & various plastics, steel, bronze, plasticine, fabric cloths, 1860 x 1200 x 900 mm Installation view, Dojima River Forum

Michael Stevenson, Proof of the Devil, 2013 Installation view, Michael Lett, Auckland

Michael Stevenson, …in the Parlance of our Times & The Mouse and the Distressed Seller, 2013, ink on paper, 500 x 400 mm

Michael Stevenson, A Life of Crudity Vulgarity and Blindness, 2012, plexiglas, cardboard, wood, steel, mirror, buttermilk, sunlight. Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Photograph: Helena Schlichting

Michael Stevenson, The gift (from ‘Argonauts of the Timor Sea’), 2004–06, aluminium, wood, rope, bamboo, tar, World War Two parachute and National Geographic magazines, Installation view, MCA, Sydney, 2011

Michael Stevenson, Call Me Immendorff, 2000 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Michael Stevenson

Born 1964, Inglewood (NZ). Lives and works in Berlin (DE)

Michael Stevenson uses historical research and reconstruction to produce installations and artworks that index social, economic, and ideological global forces. His works frequently bring viewers into contact with the material and tangible consequences of such forces and the physical realities they produce.

Stevenson received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland in 1986. Based in Berlin since 2000, his work has been in included in international exhibitions including the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018); the 6th Berlin Biennale (2010); the 2nd Athens Biennial (2009) and the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2006). In 2003 Stevenson was selected as New Zealand’s representative at the 50th Venice Biennale, exhibiting This is the Trekka at the New Zealand pavilion.  Significant exhibitions include: Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2021); Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Melbourne (2019), 21st Biennale of Sydney, Carriageworks, Sydney (2018) and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki (2018); Signs & Wonders, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2015), Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2016), Carl Freedman Gallery, London (2016); The Chronicle of Interventions, Tate Modern, London (2013) and A Life of Crudity, Vulgarity, and Blindness, Portikus, Frankfurt (2012).

In 2006 Stevenson was the Capp St. resident artist at the Wattis Institute CCA in San Francisco and in he 2002 was awarded the New Zealand residency programme at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin.

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Michael Stevenson, The Apply Chair: Apply for Funding, 2023, laser-engraved polyester tufted pile fabric, shredded documents, chipped foam, breathable non-woven polypropylene, metal rings, 1000 x 1000 x 1000mm

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Michael Stevenson, The Shallow Pond, (detail) 2023, scratched polychromed wood, steel, brass, glass, ceramic, recycled plastic, 2320 x 1260 x 1010mm

Michael Stevenson, The Grantmaker’s Chair, 2023, breathable non-woven polypropylene shredded documents, chipped foam, metal rings, printed polyester, taffeta tape, 1000 x 1000 x 1000mm

Michael Stevenson, Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop: seating proposals for a Grantmaker, 2023 Installation view, Michael Lett 3 East St

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Hold Up to Live Camera, 2021. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist, Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, The Cheap Heat, 2021, (Incl. Color Television Camera Fese KC U 40, 1969/76; Zoom Lens Schneider Variogon, ca. 1967; Loan Stiftung Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin). Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017/21 Commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA Commission supported by the Contemporary Benefactors of Auckland Art Gallery, Chartwell Trust, Auckland Contemporary Art Trust, Auckland Art Gallery International Ambassadors, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017/21. Commissioned by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki with commissioning partners the Biennale of Sydney 2018 and Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA Commission supported by the Contemporary Benefactors of Auckland Art Gallery, Chartwell Trust, Auckland Contemporary Art Trust, Auckland Art Gallery International Ambassadors, and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021; Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Michael Stevenson, Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle, 2020/21. Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy the artist, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, and Fine Arts, Sydney; Photograph: Andrea Rossetti

Installation view of the exhibition Michael Stevenson Disproof Does Not Equal Disbelief at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin 2021. Courtesy of the artist; Photograph: Frank Sperling

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Serene Velocity in Practice: MC510/CS183, 2017 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki

Michael Stevenson, Signs and Wonders, 2015, zinc chromate conversion coating on steel, aluminium, stretch fabric, screen printed aviation fabric, airline blankets, books, documents, HD video, dimensions variable Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Photograph: Anders Sune Berg

Michael Stevenson, Signs and Wonders, 2015, zinc chromate conversion coating on steel, aluminium, stretch fabric, screen printed aviation fabric, airline blankets, books, documents, HD video, dimensions variable Installation view, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen. Photograph: Anders Sune Berg

Michael Stevenson, Fortune, Dojima River Biennale, 2015 Osaka Original ‘Fortune’ magazine from March 1952, Banco de Guatemala presentation folder, printed paper, plexiglass & various plastics, steel, bronze, plasticine, fabric cloths, 1860 x 1200 x 900 mm Installation view, Dojima River Forum

Michael Stevenson, A Needle Walks into a Haystack, 2014 Installation view, Old Blind School, 8th Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool

Michael Stevenson, Proof of the Devil, 2013 Installation view, Michael Lett, Auckland

Michael Stevenson, Proof of the Devil, 2013 Installation view, Michael Lett, Auckland

Michael Stevenson, …in the Parlance of our Times & The Mouse and the Distressed Seller, 2013, ink on paper, 500 x 400 mm

Michael Stevenson, A Life of Crudity Vulgarity and Blindness, 2012, plexiglas, cardboard, wood, steel, mirror, buttermilk, sunlight. Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Photograph: Helena Schlichting

Michael Stevenson, A Life of Crudity Vulgarity and Blindness, 2012, plexiglas, cardboard, wood, steel, mirror, buttermilk, sunlight. Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main. Photograph: Helena Schlichting

Michael Stevenson, Art of the Eighties and Seventies, Installation view, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, 2005, clay, soil, steel, steel, wood, 13.7 x 13.7 x 5.8 m, photograph Achim Kukulies

Michael Stevenson, The gift (from ‘Argonauts of the Timor Sea’), 2004–06, aluminium, wood, rope, bamboo, tar, World War Two parachute and National Geographic magazines, Installation view, MCA, Sydney, 2011

Michael Stevenson, This is the Trekka, 2003 Installation view, New Zealand Pavilion, 50th Venice Biennale. Photograph Jens Ziehe

Michael Stevenson, Call Me Immendorff, 2000 Installation view, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki