{{Short description|American artist (born 1960)}} {{Similar names|John Pierson (disambiguation){{!}}John Pierson}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox artist | name = Jack Pierson | birth_date = 1960 | birth_place = Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S. | education = Massachusetts College of Art and Design (BFA, 1984) | known_for = {{flatlist| * Photography * word sculptures * collage * installation art }} | movement = Boston School | website = {{URL|jackpiersonstudio.com}} }}
'''Jack Pierson''' (born 1960 in Plymouth, Massachusetts) is an American artist and gallerist. Pierson is known for his photographs, collages, word sculptures, installations, drawings, and artist's books. His works are held in numerous museum collections.
== Early life and education ==
Pierson graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1984 with a bachelor's in fine arts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Massachusetts College of Art |url=https://archive.org/details/perspectives1996mass/page/n9/mode/2up?q=pierson |title=Perspectives |publisher=The College |others=Massachusetts College of Art and Design |year=1996}}</ref> He spent his last year of college at Cooper Union as part of an exchange program.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 6, 2017 |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/jack-pierson |access-date=November 12, 2024 |website=Interview Magazine}}</ref>
== Artistic practice ==
Pierson's practice encompasses wall drawings, word pieces, installations, drawings, paintings, and photographs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=http://ropac.net/artist/jack-pierson |website=Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac |location=Paris/Salzburg |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217004850/http://ropac.net/artist/jack-pierson |archive-date=February 17, 2013}}</ref> For the project ''The Source'', artist Doug Aitken filmed a conversation with Pierson exploring the essence of his creative process.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Doug Aitken – The Source: Jack Pierson |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/doug-aitken-source-jack-pierson |website=Tate Modern |location=London |date=December 7, 2012}}</ref>
===Work===
==== Photography ====
Pierson is considered part of a group of photographers known as the Boston School, which includes David Armstrong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Mark Morrisroe, and twins Doug and Mike Starn, among others.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McKenna |first=Kristine |date=June 1, 1997 |title=Chronicle of a Death Foretold |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-06-01-ca-64401-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> All of them knew one another in the early 1980s and photographed their immediate circle of friends in situations that were, or appeared to be, casual or intimate.<ref name="Gefter">{{Cite news |last=Gefter |first=Philip |date=December 18, 2003 |title=Self-Portrait as Obscure Object of Desire; Jack Pierson's Autobiography, of Sorts, in Photographs of Unidentified Men |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/18/books/self-portrait-obscure-object-desire-jack-pierson-s-autobiography-sorts.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>
In 2003, Pierson published ''Self Portrait'', a book of photographs featuring 15 images of men arranged to suggest the arc of a lifetime, beginning with a young boy and progressing to old age; none of the images is of the artist himself.<ref name="Gefter" /> His "Self-Portrait" series was shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial.
Pierson's work is regularly commissioned for magazines, and he has undertaken photography projects for several luxury fashion houses.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=http://www.xavierhufkens.com/artists/jack-pierson |website=Galerie Xavier Hufkens |date=June 19, 2025 |location=Brussels/Paris}}</ref> Commissioned by the Italian luxury label Bottega Veneta, he photographed models Liya Kebede, Karmen Pedaru, and Alexandre Cunha for the 2012 spring/summer ad campaign in Coconut Grove, Florida.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Binlot |first=Ann |date=January 3, 2012 |title=Bottega Veneta Taps Jack Pierson for Latest Arty Ad Campaign |url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/754977/bottega-veneta-taps-jack-pierson-for-latest-arty-ad-campaign |website=Artinfo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109040203/http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/754977/bottega-veneta-taps-jack-pierson-for-latest-arty-ad-campaign |url-status=usurped |archive-date=January 9, 2012 }}</ref>
==== Word sculptures ====
Pierson began making his ''Word Sculptures'' in 1991, utilizing found objects: mismatched letters salvaged from junkyards, old movie marquees, roadside diners, Las Vegas casinos, and other forsaken enterprises. These works spell out individual words or phrases.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=http://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/2007_4_jack-pierson/pressrelease/ |website=Regen Projects |location=Los Angeles |date=April 14 – May 12, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606001037/http://www.regenprojects.com/exhibitions/2007_4_jack-pierson/pressrelease/ |archive-date=June 6, 2013}}</ref>
In 2025, the Obama Foundation commissioned Pierson to create a sculpture spelling out "hope", one of President Barack Obama's core campaign slogans, with found letters for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goukassian |first=Elena |date=September 12, 2025 |title=Artists Including Jenny Holzer, Alison Saar, and Kiki Smith Creating Commissions for Obama Presidential Center |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/09/12/obama-presidential-center-new-artist-commissions-chicago-jenny-holzer-nick-cave |website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>
==== Video ====
Commissioned in 1997 by the artistic collective Bernadette Corporation, Pierson's video ''Past Life in Egypt'' is a collaboration with Ursula Hodel, who plays a glamorous dominatrix recounting her past life as a queen of Egypt.<ref name="Cheim">{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson: Melancholia Passing Into Madness |url=http://www.cheimread.com/exhibitions/2006_3_jack-pierson/?view=pressrelease |website=Cheim & Read Gallery |location=New York |date=March 30 – May 6, 2006}}</ref>
==== Paintings and drawings ====
In 2006, inspired by an earlier series of pencil drawings from an old postcard of a woman's face, Pierson produced a suite of twelve large-scale silkscreen paintings: linear graphics in black ink on off-white linen.<ref name="Cheim" />
In a group of what Pierson refers to as "first page drawings", he copies the first page of books by Barbara Pym, Jean Rhys, Sister Wendy, and Marilyn Monroe, among others, on {{convert|11|x|14|in|cm}} paper.<ref name="Cheim" />
=== Collections ===
Pierson's work is held in public collections internationally, including:
* Art Institute of Chicago<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/64313/jack-pierson |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |date=1960 }}</ref> * Irish Museum of Modern Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Untitled |url=https://imma.ie/collection/untitled-12/ |website=IMMA}}</ref> * Los Angeles County Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/157337 |website=LACMA Collections}}</ref> * Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kino |first=Carol |date=March 29, 2006 |title=You Can Take This With You |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/arts/artsspecial/you-can-take-this-with-you.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> * Metropolitan Museum of Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson: The Lonely Life |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283735 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=August 28, 2022}}</ref> * Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago<ref name="MCA">{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson, Fascination, 1990 |url=https://mcachicago.org/Collection/Items/1990/Jack-Pierson-Fascination-1990 |website=MCA Chicago}}</ref> * Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://mocanomi.org/2013/04/jack-piersonidols-2010/ |website=Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami |date=April 24, 2013 |access-date=July 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190722035736/https://mocanomi.org/2013/04/jack-piersonidols-2010/ |archive-date=July 22, 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref> * Museum of Modern Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://www.moma.org/artists/21446 |website=The Museum of Modern Art}}</ref> * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Jack_Pierson/ |website=SFMOMA}}</ref> * Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art<ref name="MCA" /> * Whitney Museum of American Art<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jack Pierson |url=https://whitney.org/artists/3853 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art}}</ref>
=== Art market ===
Pierson is represented by Xavier Hufkens, Thaddaeus Ropac, Regen Projects, and Lisson Gallery (since 2022).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Greenberger |first=Alex |date=May 13, 2022 |title=Jack Pierson, Artist with a Cult Following, Joins Lisson Gallery As It Prepares to Expand |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/jack-pierson-lisson-gallery-representation-1234628492/ |website=ARTnews}}</ref>
== Elliott Templeton Fine Arts == In 2023, Pierson opened an art gallery in Chinatown, New York,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sandstrom |first=Emily |date=February 29, 2024 |title=Photographer Jack Pierson Walks Us Through His Personal Art Collection |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/photographer-jack-pierson-walks-us-through-his-personal-art-collection |website=Interview Magazine}}</ref> intended as an "homage to the gay shopkeepers who thrived downtown in the '80s and '90s",<ref name="nyt-2024">{{cite news|title=A Lakeside Restaurant Reopens in Paris's Bois de Boulogne|first=Zio|last=Baritaux|newspaper=New York Times|date=April 18, 2024|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/18/t-magazine/chalet-des-iles-paris-restaurant.html}}</ref> and described by Hilton Als as "a jewel box of a space devoted to delicate ideas strongly executed."<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Pick Three|last=Als|first=Hilton|author-link=Hilton Als|magazine=New Yorker|date=October 21, 2024|volume=100|issue=34|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/goings-on/the-press-on-nail-renaissance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241105062330/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/goings-on/the-press-on-nail-renaissance|archive-date=November 5, 2024}}</ref> Its interior was designed by Fernando Santangelo.<ref name="nyt-2024" /> In 2025, the gallery opened a location in Miami.<ref name="nyt-miami">{{cite news|title=Jack Pierson in Miami: An Artist and a City in Transformation|last=Sheets|first=Hilarie M.|newspaper=New York Times|date=November 30, 2025|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/arts/design/jack-pierson-art-basel-miami.html}}</ref>
Its name is taken from a character in ''The Razor's Edge'' by W. Somerset Maugham, of whom Pierson said, "They didn't say he was homosexual but you just knew."<ref name="nyt-miami" />
==Personal life== Pierson is openly gay.<ref name="nyt-miami" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official|https://www.jackpiersonstudio.com/}}
{{Authority control}} {{Portal bar|LGBTQ}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierson, Jack}} Category:1960 births Category:Living people Category:Gay photographers Category:American gay artists Category:American LGBTQ photographers Category:LGBTQ people from Massachusetts Category:Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni