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Artist Profile
Julia Scher
Julia Scher was born in 1954 in Hollywood, California. The artist has taught and lectured at a number of institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Cooper Union for Art and Science, Hartford University Art School, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, Harvard University, Columbia University, The Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Rutgers University. While teaching at the Department of Film and Video at the Massachusetts College of Art, (1995–1996), she launched the first “Surveillance Studies” class in the United States. Since 2006, Scher has been Professor for Multimedia Performance Surveillant Architectures at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. The artist currently lives and works in Cologne.
She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Preservation Grant for Media Arts, the John F. Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for Installation Art (2005), The Bunting Institute Fellowship for Surveillance Studies at Harvard University (1996–1997), and the NEA Grant for Installation Art (1992).
Emerging in the mid 1980s as a precise but playful analyst of social and technological changes, Julia Scher has been dealing with video surveillance for more than 30 years. Her work addresses surveillance both as a concrete phenomenon of control, including its apparatus and architecture, as well as its impact on private and public sphere. Very early on, her performance and video installations drew attention to the effects of increasingly ubiquitous cameras and monitors, anticipating our surveillance alienated society.
Scher’s large-scale installations often include auditory components: emulating the familiar language of public announcements, Scher’s sound works expose the inherent violence and power relations underlying the innocuous-sounding language of such everyday communications in a witty, disconcerting manner.
Scher’s large-scale installations often include auditory components: emulating the familiar language of public announcements. Her sound works expose the inherent violence and power relations underlying the innocuous-sounding language of such everyday communications in a witty, disconcerting manner.
Julia Scher’s works have been shown in numerous international solo exhibitions, including: Maximum Security Society, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2023); Maximum Security Society, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zurich (2022); Wonderland, Maison Populaire, Montreuil (2022); Planet Greyhound, Kunsthalle Gießen (2022); Julia Scher, MAMCO, Geneva (2021); Julia Scher – Delta, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen (2018); Predictive Engineering2, SFMOMA, San Francisco (1998); Forecast, Maurine and Robert Rothschild Gallery, Harvard University, Cambridge (1996); Don’t Worry, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (1994); Buffalo Under Surveillance, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo (1992); Security Site Visits, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1990); Occupational Placement (O.P.), The Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (1989); and Julia Scher: Public Travel Area (P.T.A.), MoMA PS1, New York (1988).
Scher’s group exhibitions include: Tuning In – Acoustique de l'émotion, Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge, Geneva (2024); Day Jobs, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University (2024); Signals: How Video Transformed the World, MoMA, New York (2023); My Oma, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2023); Collection of Contemporary Art, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2020); Im Volksgarten, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus (2020); Time is Thirsty, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); Maskulinitäten, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf (2019); Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2018); The Condition of Being Art: Pat Hearn Gallery and American Fine Arts, Co., The Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson (2018); Art and Entertainment, MAMCO, Geneva (2018); Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2018); In Relation to a Spectator, Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2017); Enemy of the stars: Ronald Jones in dialogue with David Hammons, Louise Lawler, Helmar Lerski, and Julia Scher, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2017); VIDEONALE.16, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn (2017); Film as Place, SFMOMA, San Francisco (2016); Global Control and Censorship, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe (2015); 1984–1999. La Décennie, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2015); NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and no Star, New Museum, New York (2013); Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera Since 1870, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2011); Aperto ’93, 45th Venice Biennale (1993); Informationsdienst, Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart (1992); The Speaker Project, ICA, London (1992); and 1989 Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1989);
Her work is held in multiple collections: MoMA, New York; Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Kunstsammlungen, Wiesbaden; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York; Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf/Berlin; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, Illinois; Le Consortium, Dijon; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; MAMCO, Geneva; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Museen Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York; Neue Galerie Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and SFMOMA, San Francisco.