Tara Donovan

{{short description|American sculptor (born 1969)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Tara Donovan | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1969  | birth_place = Flushing, New York | death_date =  | death_place = | spouse = | field = Sculpture | training = BFA, Corcoran College of Art and Design (1991) MFA, Virginia Commonwealth University (1999) | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = MacArthur Fellow (2008) | elected = | website =  | bgcolour = }} '''Tara Donovan''' (born 1969 in Flushing, Queens, in New York City)<ref name="Phaidon Editors">{{cite book |title=Great Women Artists |date=2019 |publisher=Phaidon Press |isbn=978-0714878775 |pages=122–123}}</ref> is an American sculptor who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her large-scale installations, sculptures, drawings, and prints utilize everyday objects to explore the transformative effects of accumulation and aggregation. Known for her commitment to process, she has earned acclaim for her ability to exploit the inherent physical characteristics of an object in order to transform it into works that generate unique perceptual phenomena and atmospheric effects. Her work has been conceptually linked to an art historical lineage that includes Postminimalism and Process artists such as Eva Hesse, Jackie Winsor, Richard Serra, and Robert Morris, along with Light and Space artists such as Mary Corse, Helen Pashgian, Robert Irwin, and James Turrell.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://metmuseum.org/press/exhibitions/2007/contemporary-artist-tara-donovans-dazzling-new-installation-opens-at-metropolitan-museum|title=Contemporary Artist Tara Donovan's Dazzling New Installation Opens at Metropolitan Museum|website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art|date=15 November 2007 |language=en|access-date=2019-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/2015106tara-donovan-talks-planning-inspiration-and-her-place-in-the-art-world/|title=Tara Donovan Talks Process, Inspiration, and Her Place in the Art World|website=Surface Mag|date=15 July 2015 |language=en|access-date=2019-03-19}}</ref>

==Education == Donovan's, formal art studies began at the School of Visual Arts (New York) in 1987–88.<ref name=Baume2008>{{Cite book|title=Tara Donovan|last1=Baume|first1=Nicholas|last2=Mergel |first2=Jen|last3=Weschler|first3=Lawrence|publisher=The Monacelli Press, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in association with The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston|year=2008|isbn=9781580932134|location=United States}}</ref>{{rp|139}} Donovan received her BFA at the Corcoran College of Art and Design (Washington DC) in 1991. After completing her undergraduate work, she maintained a studio in Baltimore and began participating in group exhibitions at galleries and non-profit art spaces.

== Career ==

=== Early exhibitions === Her first major exhibition was ''ArtSites 96'' for the ''Washington Review,'' about the Maryland Art Place exhibition in Baltimore, where she first presented her toothpick cubes.<ref name="John Dorsey 1996">{{cite news |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-06-01-1996153082-story.html|author=John Dorsey|title=Humor clearly has its place in MAP's ArtSites 96 show |work=The Baltimore Sun|date=June 1996|access-date=2019-03-22}}</ref> She also participated in ''Options 1997'' at Washington Project for the Arts, where she presented her first project utilizing torn pieces of tar paper, as well as group exhibitions at Baumgartner Galleries and Numark Gallery in Washington, DC.<ref name="Michael O'Sullivan 1997">{{cite news |author= Michael O'Sullivan | title= WPA'S LIMITED 'OPTIONS' | newspaper=The Washington Post | date= July 1997| url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/07/04/wpas-limited-options/e24b4122-8407-493d-bacf-58b1290b2777/ | access-date=2019-04-11 }}</ref><ref name="Glen Dixon 1997">{{cite news |author= Glen Dixon | title= Bastards of Young, Options 1997 | publisher=Washington City Paper | date= July 1997}}</ref> In 1998, Donovan held her first solo exhibition, ''Resonances'', at Hemphill Fine Arts in Washington DC. In the same year, she exhibited ''New Sculpture'' at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Reynolds Gallery Fictions in Wonderland|last=Hobbs|first=Robert|publisher=Raymond Geary and Associates, Richmond|year=2002|location=Richmond, Virginia}}</ref>

Donovan returned to her studies and earned her MFA at VCUarts, part of Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 1999, when she also received her first interview in ''Articulate Contemporary Art Review''. Upon graduating, she mounted her first major museum solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Hemicycle Gallery in Washington, DC in 1999, where she presented ''Whorl'', an installation made out of approximately 8,000 pounds of nylon fiber that was bundled into units and then spread out on the floor in an expanding spiral pattern.<ref name="Joanne Lewis 1999">{{cite news | author= Joanne Lewis | title= An Artist With the 'Whorl' At Her Feet | newspaper=The Washington Post | date= December 1999}}</ref> Soon after, she relocated to New York and was invited to participate in the 2000 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she presented a floor installation (''Ripple'', 1998) made of cut electrical cable.<ref name="Christian Viveros-Fauné 2000">{{cite news | author= Christian Viveros-Fauné | title= Whitney Biennial | publisher=New York Press | date= April 2000}}</ref>

===Exhibitions===

Donovan's first major commercial gallery exhibitions were mounted at Ace Gallery in New York and Los Angeles. Her work was included in the 2000 Whitney Biennial.<ref name="ArtNet">{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/tara-donovan/ |website=ArtNet |access-date=6 December 2019}}</ref> Earlier, from 1999 to 2000, Donovan exhibited ''Whorl'' at Hemicycle Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Upon receiving the call that she would be exhibiting this site-specific installation, Donovan is quoted as saying "I screamed and ran around in circles ... What do you think?"<ref>{{cite news|last1=O'Sullivan|first1=Michael|title=Tara Donovan's Power Puff 'Whorls'|newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-12/17/032r-121799-idx.html}}</ref> In a review of that exhibition, art critic Jessica Dawson observed that "Like ''Whorl'', the artist's past works transformed outsize quantities of everyday materials—toothpicks, roofing felt, rolls of adding machine paper—into the unexpected: natural formations, seemingly living organisms, topographic maps".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/article/13019186/tara-donovan-whorl|title=Tara Donovan: Whorl|website=Washington City Paper|date=7 January 2000 |language=en|access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref> Following ''Whorl'', Donovan showed a series of exhibitions at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

In 2003, she occupied the entire Ace Gallery space at 274 Hudson Street in New York with a series of ‘site-responsive’ installations, many of which have now come to define the artist's oeuvre. Examples include ''Haze'' (2003), which is composed entirely of translucent plastic drinking straws stacked against a wall and buttressed by the adjoining walls to create a monumental frieze with atmospheric effects. The floor installation Nebulous (2002) is made entirely of Scotch tape that has been unspooled and extemporaneously ‘woven’ into interconnected units. Transplanted (2001) expanded upon her previous projects with torn pieces of tar paper in order to create a monumental slab of material occupying a footprint of over 25-feet square. Strata (2000) is another expansive floor installation made of pooled and layered pieces of dried Elmer's glue. Moiré (1999) consists of large spools of adding machine paper that are manipulated and layered to form radiating patterns that shift with the position of the viewer. Colony (2000) is composed of cut pieces of standard pencils at various lengths, which are arranged on the floor to suggest the architectural sprawl of urban development. The exhibition received widespread critical acclaim, garnering reviews and profiles in ''The New York Times'', ''Village Voice'', ''Artforum'', ''Art in America'', ''Flash Art International'', and ''W'', among others.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith |first1=Roberta|title=Art in Review: Tara Donovan|work=The New York Times |date=11 April 2003 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/11/arts/art-in-review-tara-donovan.html}}</ref><ref name="Lilly Wei 2003">{{cite news |author= Lilly Wei | title= Materialist | publisher=Art in America | date= 2003 | pages=101–103 }}</ref><ref name="David Frankel Summer 2003">{{cite news |author= David Frankel | title= Tara Donovan, Ace Gallery| publisher=ArtForum | date= Summer 2003 }}</ref><ref name="Kim Levin 2003">{{cite news |author= Kim Levin | title= Material Girl | publisher=Village Voice | date= April 2003 }}</ref><ref name="Julie L. Belcove 2003">{{cite news |author= Julie L. Belcove | title= Material Girl | publisher=W Magazine | date= October 2003 | pages=222–223 }}</ref>

A series of solo museum projects followed at venues such as Rice University Art Gallery in Houston,<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Haze |url=https://www.ricegallery.org/tara-donovan |website=Rice Gallery |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, UCLA's Hammer Museum,<ref>{{cite web |title=Hammer Projects |url=https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2004/hammer-projects-tara-donovan/ |website=Hammer Museum UCLA |date=23 May 2004 |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> Berkeley Art Museum,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Kenneth |title=Artist's floor installation is made of pencils -- lots and lots of pencils -- but that's not the point |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Artist-s-floor-installation-is-made-of-pencils-2624318.php |access-date=5 August 2019 |publisher=SF Gate |date=13 January 2007}}</ref> Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Pantsios |first1=Anastasia |title=Ahead of the Curve |agency=Cleveland Free Times |date=12–18 November 2003}}</ref> and the Saint Louis Art Museum,<ref>{{cite web |title=Currents 98: Tara Donovan |url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/41050/currents-98-tara-donovan/ |website=e-flux |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> among others.

Donovan says of her work, "It is not like I'm trying to simulate nature. It's more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow."<ref name="Hammer">{{cite web | title = Hammer Projects: Tara Donovan | url = http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/81 | access-date = 2010-02-09 | archive-date = 2010-07-09 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100709102313/http://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/detail/exhibition_id/81 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Fellow artist Chuck Close told a reporter that "At this particular moment in the art world, invention and personal vision have been demoted in favor of appropriation, of raiding the cultural icebox. For somebody to go out and try to make something that doesn't remind you of anybody else's work and is really, truly innovative—and I think Tara's work is—that's very much against the grain of the moment. To me, it represents a gutsy move."<ref name="Diane Solway 2008">{{cite news| author= Diane Solway| title= Grand Illusion| publisher= W magazine| date= September 2008| url= http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2008/09/tara_donovan?currentPage=1| access-date= 2008-11-18| archive-date= 2013-06-16| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130616232119/http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2008/09/tara_donovan?currentPage=1| url-status= dead}}</ref>

===Pace Gallery=== In 2005, Donovan joined Pace Gallery where her work was included in both a summer group show and the group exhibition ''Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art'' curated by Marc Glimcher.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11894/logical-conclusions-40-years-of-rule-based-art|title=Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art|website=Pace Gallery|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=2019-06-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627150915/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11894/logical-conclusions-40-years-of-rule-based-art|url-status=dead}}</ref> Her first major solo exhibition at Pace in 2006, ''Tara Donovan: New Work'', presented ''Untitled (Plastic Cups)'', an installation of stacks of plastic cups assembled at a scale that suggested a rolling topographical landscape.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11816/tara-donovan-new-work|title=Tara Donovan: New Work|website=Pace Gallery|access-date=2019-06-27|archive-date=2019-06-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617165730/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11816/tara-donovan-new-work|url-status=dead}}</ref> Later that same year, she presented ''Tara Donovan: Rubber Band Drawings''. She has since proceeded to debut most of her new projects in solo and group exhibitions at Pace and its global affiliate galleries in London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto, which include the following (among others):

* ''Light, Time and Three Dimensions'', Pace Gallery, New York, June 28{{snd}}August 24, 2007<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11701/light-time-and-three-dimensions| title=Light, Time and Three Dimensions |website=Pace Gallery|access-date=2019-06-27}}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan: New Drawings'', Pace Gallery, New York, April 10{{snd}}May 2, 2009<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: New Drawings |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11453/tara-donovan-new-drawings |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=17 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617165731/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11453/tara-donovan-new-drawings |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''On the Square'', Pace Gallery', New York, January 8{{snd}}February 13, 2010<ref>{{cite web |title=On the Square |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11327/on-the-square |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> * ''50 Years at Pace,'' Pace Gallery, New York, September 17–October 16, 2010<ref>{{cite web |title=50 Years at Pace: Art in the Twenty-First Century |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11254/50-years-at-pace-art-in-the-twenty-first-century |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829015748/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11254/50-years-at-pace-art-in-the-twenty-first-century |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan: Drawings (Pins)'', Feb 12, 2011{{snd}}Mar 19, 2011 included more than twelve drawings composed of thousands of nickel-headed steel pins pierced into white gatorboard.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Drawings (Pins) |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11229/tara-donovan-drawings-pins |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=17 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617165734/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11229/tara-donovan-drawings-pins |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Untitled (Mylar)'', May 4{{snd}}April 9, 2011<ref>{{cite web |title=Untitled (Mylar) |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11222/tara-donovan-untitled-mylar-2011 |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=17 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617165737/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11222/tara-donovan-untitled-mylar-2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Beijing Voice 2011: Leaving Realism Behind'', November 9, 2011{{snd}}February 12, 2012<ref>{{cite web |title=Beijing Voice 2011: Leaving Realism Behind |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11178/beijing-voice-2011-leaving-realism-behind |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829015548/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/11178/beijing-voice-2011-leaving-realism-behind |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wang |first1=Sue |title="Beijing Voice: Leaving Realism Behind" Presented by Pace Beijing |url=http://en.cafa.com.cn/beijing-voice-leaving-realism-behind-presented-by-pace-beijing.html |website=CAFA Art Info |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=10 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110001930/http://en.cafa.com.cn/beijing-voice-leaving-realism-behind-presented-by-pace-beijing.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Grounded'', January 17{{snd}}February 22, 2014<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pacegallery.com/artists/111/tara-donovan/exhibitions |title=On the Floor|website=Pace Gallery |access-date=2013-12-20 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103011416/http://www.pacegallery.com/artists/111/tara-donovan/exhibitions |archive-date=2014-01-03 }}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan'', Pace Gallery, New York, May 22{{snd}}August 23, 2014<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12667/tara-donovan-untitled |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829023048/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12667/tara-donovan-untitled |url-status=dead }}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan'', Pace Gallery, New York, May 9{{snd}}July 8, 2015<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12741/tara-donovan |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> * ''Talking on Paper'', Pace in Beijing, April 17{{snd}}June 18, 2016<ref>{{cite web |title=Talking on Paper |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12801/talking-on-paper |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan'', Pace in Palo Alto, January 26{{snd}}March 26, 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12846/tara-donovan |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Salazar |first1=Alejandra |title=Tara Donovan show at Pace Palo Alto gallery |url=https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Tara-Donovan-show-at-Pace-Palo-Alto-gallery-10951878.php |access-date=27 June 2019 |publisher=SFGate |date=February 22, 2017}}</ref> * ''Chewing Gum II'', Pace in Hong Kong, February 10{{snd}}March 11, 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Chewing Gum II |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12853/chewing-gum-ii |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan'', Pace Gallery, New York, February 17{{snd}}March 18, 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12851/tara-donovan |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan'', Pace in Seoul, September 6{{snd}}October 22, 2017<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12880/tara-donovan |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Martinique |first1=Elena |title=Pace Gallery Seoul Delivers Tara Donovan's First Solo Exhibition in Asia |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/tara-donovan-art-pace-gallery-seoul/ |access-date=27 June 2019 |publisher=WideWalls |date=August 17, 2017}}</ref> * ''Tara Donovan: Compositions'', Pace in London, January 24{{snd}}March 9, 2018<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Compositions |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12899/compositions |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829022904/https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12899/compositions |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Compositions |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/event/20171208-compositions |website=BBC - Culture |access-date=27 June 2019 |archive-date=27 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627170120/http://www.bbc.com/culture/event/20171208-compositions |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In addition to Pace, Donovan's work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at other galleries including Krakow Witkin Gallery<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.krakowwitkingallery.com/tara_donovan |website=Krakow Witkin Gallery |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> in Boston, Reynolds Gallery<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.reynoldsgallery.com/artists/tara-donovan/ |website=Reynolds Gallery |date=24 August 2006 |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> in Richmond, Galerie Perrotin<ref>{{cite web |title=Paulin, Paulin, Paulin |url=https://www.perrotin.com/exhibitions/pierre_paulin-paulin-paulin-paulin/2315 |website=Perrotin Gallery |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> in Paris, Stephen Friedman Gallery in London,<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan at Stephen Friedman Gallery |url=https://www.stephenfriedman.com/exhibitions/past/2007/tara-donovan/ |website=Stephen Friedman Gallery |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> and Quint Gallery<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan at Quint Gallery |url=https://www.artsy.net/quint-gallery/artist/tara-donovan |website=Artsy |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> in La Jolla, among others.

===Museum exhibitions===

Donovan has produced many large-scale exhibitions at museums. One of the most notable is her 2007 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan at the Met |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2007/tara-donovan |website=The Met |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref> Titled ''Tara Donovan at the Met'', the project was the fourth in a series of projects with contemporary artists commissioned by the museum. She produced a site-responsive installation using loops of Mylar tape affixed in clusters to all of the walls of a gallery, which surrounded the viewers in a shifting, phenomenological experience as they moved through the space.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan at the Met, Installation |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2007/tara-donovan/photo-gallery |website=The Met |access-date=16 July 2019}}</ref>

Donovan also had work as part of the Material Matters exhibition hosted by the Cornell University Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art in 2005. This show featured the work of 20 artists who highlighted material and process but also drew from vocabulary of conceptual and minimalist art of the '60's and '70's. The featured work was a cube made with thousands of pins held together by friction and gravity.<ref name="Material Matters">{{cite book |last1=Inselmann |first1=Andrea |title=Material Matters |publisher=Herbert R Johnson Museum of Art |location=Ithaca, NY |pages=26–27}}</ref>

Donovan's first major survey exhibition was produced by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, where it opened in 2008.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/tara-donovan |website=ICA Boston |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref> The exhibition traveled to the Cincinnati Art Center,<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/exhibitions/2009/02/tara-donovan |website=CAC |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref> the Des Moines Art Center,<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/exhibitions/donovan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617171322/https://www.desmoinesartcenter.org/exhibitions/donovan |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 17, 2019 |website=Des Moines Art Center |access-date=25 July 2019 }}</ref> and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/tara-donovan |website=MCaSD |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref> throughout the rest of 2008 and 2009. In addition to new iterations of ''Haze'', ''Nebulous'', ''Strata'', ''Moiré'', ''Untitled (Plastic Cups)'', ''Untitled (Mylar Tape)'', and ''Untitled (Styrofoam Cups)'', the exhibition included examples of ''Bluffs'' (sculptures made of stacks of clear plastic buttons), ''Untitled (Paper Plates)'' (another series of sculptures that use the ridged edges of standard paper plates to form orbs that fuse together into crystalline-like clusters), and three of her cubes made of different materials: ''Untitled (Toothpicks)'', ''Untitled (Pins)'', and ''Untitled (Glass)''. Donovan also introduced museum audiences to newer projects such as ''Untitled (Mylar)'', which consists of folded sheets of Mylar condensed into spherical units, and ''Untitled'', a wall-based installation that uses sheets of folded and compressed polyester film to construct a thick screen of material that plays with light, optics and perspective (a subsequent iteration of this project was commissioned for the Lever House Art Collection<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Untitled |url=https://www.leverhouseartcollection.com/commissions/tara-donovan |website=Lever House Art Collection |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref>).

In 2010, Donovan worked with the Indianapolis Museum of Art to produce ''Tara Donovan: Untitled'', an exhibition of many of her previous sculptural installation projects (including ''Ripple'', ''Colony'', ''Strata'', ''Transplanted'', and ''Untitled (Plastic Cups)'') along with examples of many of her drawings and monoprints produced since 2000. In addition, the museum commissioned a large-scale version of ''Untitled (Mylar)'', which is now part of the collection.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan: Untitled Trailer |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik7CVIBOssY |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/ik7CVIBOssY |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|website=YouTube | date=8 November 2012 |access-date=25 July 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=IMA Collections |url=http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/54604/ |website=Indianapolis Museum of Art |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref>

In 2012, Donovan was invited by the Milwaukee Art Museum to participate in its series of contemporary artists’ projects. Currents 35: Tara Donovan featured new iterations of Haze and Untitled (Lever House Project) as well as examples from her new series of ''Drawings (Pins)'' (2011) and a new sculptural installation of clear acrylic rods assembled into spiky crystalline units that can be combined in different orientations to create a sprawling floor installation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Currents 35: Tara Donovan |url=https://mam.org/exhibitions/details/tara-donovan.php |website=Milwaukee Art Museum |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref>

Donovan's first European museum exhibition was organized in 2013 by the Arp Museum in Remagen, Germany in collaboration with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.louisiana.dk/en/exhibition/tara-donovan |website=Louisiana Contemporary |access-date=1 August 2019 |archive-date=1 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190801203305/https://www.louisiana.dk/en/exhibition/tara-donovan |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://arpmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/temporary-exhibitions/retrospective/tara-donovan.html |website=Arp Museum Rolandseck |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref> The exhibition presented a sampling of her installations and sculptural projects produced over the previous fifteen years.

In 2015, Donovan was invited by curator Andrea Grover to participate in the Parrish Museum's Platform initiative, which is a series of contemporary artists’ projects that respond to the architecture, context, and environmental conditions of the museum.<ref>{{cite web |title=Platform: Tara Donovan |url=https://parrishart.org/exhibitions/platform-tara-donovan |website=Parrish Museum |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref> Donovan presented new works related to her experiments with Slinkys (the children's toy) as both a sculptural and mark-making material. The artist was also invited to participate in her first UK-based exhibition at Jupiter Artland in Scotland where she presented a wall installation of Slinkys along with iterations of ''Untitled (Plastic Cups)'' and ''Untitled (Mylar)''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.jupiterartland.org/whats-on/tara-donovan |website=Jupiter Artland |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref> An installation of Donovan's monumental stacks of styrene cards (which previously debuted at Pace Gallery in 2014) was included in the ''Wonder'' exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art's Renwick Gallery, which opened in November 2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=WONDER |url=https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/wonder |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=WONDER: Tara Donovan |url=https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/wonder/online/tara-donovan |website=Smithsonian American Art Museum |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref> The 2018 exhibition Hyperobjects at Ballroom Marfa—curated in collaboration with Timothy Morton—considered Donovan's work within a broad conceptual framework of geological time and the imprint of human activity and its material residue on the present and future.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hyperobjects |url=https://www.ballroommarfa.org/archive/event/hyperobjects/ |website=Ballroom Marfa |access-date=1 August 2019}}</ref>

Donovan's 2018 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver<ref>{{cite web |title=Fieldwork: Tara Donovan |url=https://mcadenver.org/exhibitions/tara-donovan |website=MCA Denver |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> occupied the entire David Adjaye-designed building. Curator Nora Abrams combined Donovan's older and more recent two-dimensional and three-dimensional works in order to “open up new areas of dialogue within her practice and enable viewers to make connections across time and subject matter”.<ref>{{cite web |title=MCA: Tara Donovan: Fieldwork |url=https://www.denverarts.org/local_exhibits/local_exhibits/mca_tara_donovan_fieldwork |website=Denver Arts |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> Including sculpture, drawings, works on paper, and site-responsive installations, the exhibition called attention to how Donovan's material experimentations result in a varied practice.

==Awards== * 2008, MacArthur Fellow, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation<ref>{{cite web |title=MacArthur Fellows Program |url=https://www.macfound.org/fellows/73/ |website=MacArthur Foundation |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref> * 2005 Calder Prize, Calder Foundation<ref>{{cite web |title=Calder Prize |url=http://www.calder.org/about/archives |website=Calder Foundation |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Calder Prize 2005–2015 |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12783/the-calder-prize-2005-2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511131556/http://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitions/12783/the-calder-prize-2005-2015 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 11, 2016 |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=28 June 2019 }}</ref> * 2004 Willard R. Metcalf Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters<ref>{{cite web |title=Metcalf Awards |url=http://artsandletters.org/awards/ |website=Awards - American Academy of Arts and Letters |access-date=28 June 2019}}</ref> * 2004 Presidential Award, Women's Caucus for Art<ref>{{cite web |title=WCA Past Honorees |url=https://www.nationalwca.org/awards/pasthonorees.php |website=Women's Caucus for Art |access-date=28 June 2019 |archive-date=29 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129100533/http://www.nationalwca.org/awards/pasthonorees.php |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Catalogue WCA |url=https://www.nationalwca.org/LTA/LTA2004.pdf |website=Women's Caucus for Art |access-date=28 June 2019 |archive-date=25 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325235518/http://nationalwca.org/LTA/LTA2004.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Selected public collections== * Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.albrightknox.org/person/tara-donovan |website=Albright-Knox Museum |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama<ref>{{cite web |title=The Collection at the BMA |url=https://artsbma.org/artist/tara-donovan-american-born-1969/ |website=Birmingham Museum of Art |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Brooklyn Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Brooklyn Museum Collections |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/188121 |website=Brooklyn Museum |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Centre Pompidou, Paris<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/ressource.action?param.id=FR_R-ee9658565168c139bee4e4452d5126&param.idSource=FR_P-ee9658565168c139bee4e4452d5126 |website=Centre Pompidou |access-date=5 August 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> * Dallas Museum of Art<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cantrell |first1=Scott |title=Art Review: Three displays of art at the DMA |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/arts/arts/2012/12/14/art-review-three-displays-of-modern-art-at-the-dma |access-date=5 August 2019 |agency=Dallas News |date=December 2012}}</ref> * Indianapolis Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=Untitled (Mylar) |url=http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/54604/ |website=Indianapolis Museum of Art |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Institute of Contemporary Art Boston<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.icaboston.org/artists/tara-donovan-0 |website=Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Los Angeles County Museum of Art<ref>{{cite web |title=LACMA Collections |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/164006 |website=Los Angeles County Museum of Art |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York<ref>{{cite web |title=The Met Collections |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/498735 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego<ref>{{cite web |title=MCASD Collections |url=https://www.mcasd.org/artists/tara-donovan |website=Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego |access-date=5 August 2019 |archive-date=27 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027204559/https://www.mcasd.org/artists/tara-donovan |url-status=dead }}</ref> * Museum of Fine Arts, Boston<ref>{{cite web |title=MFA Collections |url=https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/untitled-556050 |website=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Parrish Art Museum, Watermill, NY<ref>{{cite web |title=PAM Collections: Tara Donovan |url=http://parrishart.org/artist-stories/#/collection/10876920 |website=Parrish Art Museum |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond<ref>{{cite web |title=VMFA Collections: Tara Donovan |url=https://www.vmfa.museum/collections/search-collections/?nav=1&keyword=tara+donovan |website=Virginia Museum of Fine Arts |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref> * Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford<ref>{{cite web |title=Wadsworth Collection: Tara Donovan |url=http://argus.wadsworthatheneum.org/Wadsworth_Atheneum_ArgusNet/Portal/public.aspx?lang=en-US&g_AABJ=Tara+Donovan |website=Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art |access-date=5 August 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York<ref>{{cite web |title=Whitney Collections: Tara Donovan |url=https://whitney.org/artists/5527 |website=Whitney Museum of American Art |access-date=5 August 2019}}</ref>

==Selected publications== *{{cite book |last1=Abrams |first1=Nora Burnett |title=Tara Donovan : fieldwork |date=2018 |publisher=Rizzoli |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8478-6292-4}} *{{cite book |last1=Donovan |first1=Tara |title=Tara Donovan |date=2008 |publisher=Monacelli Press |location=New York |isbn=9781580932134 |edition=1st}} *{{cite book |last1=Donovan |first1=Tara |title=Tara Donovan |date=2013 |publisher=Louisiana Museum of Modern Art/DAP |location=Humlebæk, Denmark |isbn=9788792877093}} *Tara Donovan exhibition catalogues, Pace Gallery<ref>{{cite web |title=Tara Donovan |url=https://www.pacegallery.com/catalogues?artist_id=111 |website=Pace Gallery |access-date=8 August 2019 |archive-date=29 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829023113/https://www.pacegallery.com/catalogues?artist_id=111 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}} * ''Inside the Artist's Studio'', Princeton Architectural Press, 2015. ({{ISBN|978-1616893040}})

==External links== *[https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/111/tara-donovan The Pace Gallery] *[http://channel.louisiana.dk/video/tara-donovan-sculpting-everyday-materials Tara Donovan: Sculpting everyday materials. Video interview] by Louisiana Channel Feb. 2013, Denmark

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donovan, Tara}} Category:Living people Category:1969 births Category:20th-century American women sculptors Category:20th-century American sculptors Category:21st-century American women sculptors Category:21st-century American sculptors Category:American women installation artists Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:American installation artists Category:People from Flushing, Queens Category:People from Nyack, New York Category:Sculptors from New York (state) Category:School of Visual Arts alumni Category:Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Category:Virginia Commonwealth University alumni