Andrea Zittel

Andrea Zit­tel​’s sculp­tures and instal­la­tions trans­form every­thing nec­es­sary for life — eat­ing, sleep­ing, bathing, and social­iz­ing — into art­ful exper­i­ments in liv­ing. Blur­ring the lines between life and art, Zit­tel’s projects extend to her own home and wardrobe. Wear­ing a sin­gle out­fit every day for an entire sea­son, and con­stantly remod­el­ing her home to suit chang­ing demands and inter­ests, Zit­tel con­tin­u­ally rein­vents her rela­tion­ship to her domes­tic and social envi­ron­ment. Influ­enced by Mod­ernist design and archi­tec­ture from the early twen­ti­eth cen­tury, the artist’s one-woman mock orga­ni­za­tion, A – Z Admin­is­tra­tive Ser­vices, devel­ops fur­ni­ture, homes, and vehi­cles for con­tem­po­rary con­sumers with a sim­i­lar sim­plic­ity and atten­tion to order. Seek­ing to attain a sense of free­dom through struc­ture, Zit­tel is more inter­ested in reveal­ing the human need for order than in pre­scrib­ing a sin­gle uni­fy­ing design prin­ci­ple or style.

Zittel’s most recent body of work consists of creating structural furniture pieces in planar configurations. These pieces make use of flat surfaces and right angles in minimal shapes and with a limited color palette. Her furniture pieces often feature many of her other works, such as weavings and wool tapestries which give warmth to the harshness of steel and aluminum.

Zit­tel’s work has been exhib­ited inter­na­tion­ally in gal­leries, muse­ums, and bien­nales includ­ing the New Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art (NYC), the Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art (CA), San Fran­cisco Museum of Mod­ern Art (CA), Museum of Mod­ern Art, Guggen­heim Museum (NYC), and the Whit­ney Museum of Amer­i­can Art, among oth­ers. She is also co-orga­nizer of High Desert Test Sites, a non-profit that sup­ports exper­i­men­tal art projects in the Joshua Tree region.

Note: This is a special archival release of content that has never before been shared online.

How to Watch

This Penny Stamps Speaker Series event will première on September 23, 2021 at 8pm and can be viewed on this page, at dptv​.org, or on the Penny Stamps Series Facebook page.

Presented with sup­port from the Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan Museum of Art (UMMA), Insti­tute for the Human­i­ties, and Detroit Cre­ative Cor­ri­dor Cen­ter (DC3). Our Fall 2021 Series is brought to you with the support of our partners, Detroit Public Television and PBS Books.