Lizzi Bougatsos

The work of Lizzi Bougatsos is a wide-ranging practice that encompasses sculpture, collage, installation, writing, and performance.  She appropriates the cultural and commercial detritus of the present in both material and subject.  Found posters and advertising are often re-purposed with painted or collaged elements to both undermine and reveal the narratives that are woven into the visual fabric of the city and popular media.  Her practice is deeply responsible to the politics of media representation and does not shy away from referring to the troubled state of current socio-political events.  She frequently employs comedy and humor that is both disarming while at the same time serves as a means to frankly comment on the moment in which we live.  By manipulating familiar, ordinary materials Bougatsos hints at the strangeness of what lies behind closed doors.  Her sculptures in ice are particularly regarded as performances; as they are temporary objects, they disappear, engendering a feeling of escape to the disarming elements and harsh realities of everyday life.  
 
In addition to her work as a visual artist, Lizzi Bougatsos is the co-founder and front woman of the well-known and “monumental” (as V Magazine dubbed them) experimental music bands, Gang Gang Dance and I.U.D..  Bougatsos has also musically collaborated with Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Jutta Koether (XXX Macarena) as well as Sadie Laska (Growing, Extreme Violence).  With Gang Gang Dance and I.U.D., Bougatsos has toured all over the world and has released numerous albums.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014
Angelblood (with Rita Ackermann), Home Alone 2, New York
 
2013
Greetings from Bitburg (with Sadie Laska and Spencer Sweeney), Entrepot-galerie du Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
I.U.D., (Lizzi Bougatsos, Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether), Issue Project Room, Brooklyn (performance)
 
2012
Lizzi Bougatsos, JERRY!!! and Rob Pruitt, Dinosaur dropping, Styrofoam varnished in cosmic-chrome, Home Alone Gallery, New York
I’m Not Pregnant, James Fuentes, New York
Sunday Sessions Party with I.U.D., (Lizzi Bougatsos, Kim Gordon, Jutta Koether), PS1 Center for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, New York (performance)
Performance for Wade Guyton Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (performance)
Blasting Voice, Suzanne Geiss Company, New York (performance)
 
2010
Lizzi Bougatsos: Slut Freak, James Fuentes, New York
 
2009
Lizzi Bougatsos, The Breeder, Athens, Greece
 
2007
Lizzi Bougatsos: Street Feather, James Fuentes, New York
 
2005
Failurisms(with Kim Gordon), Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York
 
2000
Boug & Worth II, American Fine Arts, Co., New York
Boug & Worth, Fuck All Our Art Heroes/Assholes, American Fine Arts, Co., New York
 
Selected Group Exhibitions
 
2014
Freezer Burn, Hauser & Wirth, New York
Joyride, Marlborough Chelsea, New York
Purple States, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York
Rockaway!,MoMA P.S.1, Long Island City, New York
Is This A Social Experiment?,Museum of Modern Art, New York
Urbanities, James Fuentes, New York
Bakerman, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Tucson, Arizona
2012
BAD FOR YOU, Shizaru Gallery, London (curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody)
Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York
Data Trash, I-20 Gallery, New York
Hot Trigger, The NewBridge Project, London
Portrait of a Generation, The Hole, New York
Four by Four: Collector Series, Victoria Myhren Gallery, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado
 
2011
In the Name of the Artists – American Contemporary Art from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, special exhibition at the 29th São Paulo Biennale, São Paulo, Brazil
 
2009
The Living and the Dead, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York
New York Minute, Macro Future Museum, Rome
 
2008
The Station, Miami (Curated by Shamim Momim and Nate Lowman)
Journey to the Center of Uranus, CANADA gallery, New York
I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl, Asia Song Society, New York
Works from the Astrup Fearnley Collection, Astrup Fearnely Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo, Norway
Jekyll Island, Honor Fraser, Los Angeles
Self-Portraits 1966-2008, James Fuentes, New York
The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of America Art, New York
 
2007
In/Out of Me, Museo d’arte Contemporanea di Roma, Milan, and Kunste Werke, Berlin (curated by Klaus Biesenbach)
The Perfect Man, White Columns, New York, (curated by Rita Ackermann)
 
2006
Bring the War Home, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York, NY and Q.E.D. Gallery, Los Angeles
The Process, Binz39, Zurich (curated by Georg Gatsas)
No Sleep ’til Albany, Downtown for Democracy Benefit, GBE Modern, New York
 
2004
Indigestible Correctness, Participant Inc. and Kenny Schachter/Rove, New York (curated by Rita Ackermann and Lizzi Bougatsos)
Out of Bounds, Le Conforte Moderne, Poitiers, France
Angelblood Tour Works ‘01-‘03, Printed Matter Inc., New York
The Face is an Empty Force, A field of Death, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (curated by Angelblood)
Levitation Under Moons Influence, Champion Fine Art, Brooklyn (curated by Steven Parrino)
 
2003
Club in the Shadow, Kenny Schachter ConTEMPorary, New York (curated by Kim Gordon and Jutta Koether)
The Process, Kunsthalle, St. Gallen, Switzerland (curated by Georg Gatsas)
Anti-Pure, Kunsthalle, St. Gallen, Switzerland and Ursula Blickle Stiftung Foundation, Kraichtal, Germany (curated by Gianni Jetzer)
Angelblood Performance, Peacock House, New York (curated by Jonathan Horowitz and Rob Pruitt)
Impact Festival: Art, Music & Politics, Utrecht, Holland
Angelblood Performance, Purple Institute, Paris, France
Black Bonds, Swiss Institute, New York (curated by Jutta Koether & Steven Parrino)
 
2002
Out of Bounds, Le Conforte Moderne, Poitiers, France
Violence the True Way, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich
Boug & Worth: Shoot the Singer, Music on Video, Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (Curated by Bennett Simpson)
Power Ballads, Rupert Goldswerthy Gallery, New York
 
2000
This is the Modern World, Modern Culture at the Gershwin, New York
Ralph Nadar Benefit, Pat Hearn Gallery, New York
The Animal Show: The East Village, 1980’s Revisited, Bodi Modern Art Galleries, Providence, Rhode Island
Dope X-MasXXX, American Fine Arts, New York
 
1999
Criss-Cross: Some Young New Yorkers, P.S.1 Institute for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, New York (curated by Klaus Biesenbach)
Actress Performance, Green Naftali Gallery, New York
Paradise Now, Exit Art, New York
Lifer, An Art Exhibition, Kenny Schacter/Rove, New York