A native of Los Angeles, California, and current New York resident, Sanford Biggers uses the study of ethnological objects, popular icons, and the Dadaist tradition to explore cultural and creative syncretism, art history, and politics. An accomplished musician, Biggers often incorporates performative elements into his sculptures and installations, resulting in multilayered works that act as anecdotal vignettes, full of wit and clear formal intent.
Biggers has also participated in many prestigious national and international artist residencies and fellowships including: Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany; Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland; Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California; ARCUS Project Foundation, Ibaraki, Japan, and the Art in General/ Trafo Gallery Eastern European Exchange in Budapest, Hungary.
He has been a fellow of the Socrates Sculpture Park Residency; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council World Views AIR Programme; the Eyebeam Atelier Teaching Residency; the Studio Museum AIR Programme; the P.S. 1 International Studio Programme, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture residency.
His installations, videos, and performances have appeared in venues worldwide including the Tate Britain and Tate Modern, London; the Whitney Museum and Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, as well as institutions in China, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Russia.
Sanford’s work has been included in shows such as Prospect 1/ New Orleans Biennial; Illuminations at the Tate Modern; Performa 07, the Whitney Biennial and Freestyle at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He has also had solo exhibitions at Grand Arts, Kansas City; Mary Goldman Gallery, Los Angeles; Kenny Schachter’s ROVE gallery, London; Triple Candie, New York; D’Amelio Terras Gallery, New York; Contemporary Art Museum, Houston; Matrix/Univ.of Berkeley Museum, Berkeley; Zamek Ujazdowski, Warsaw as well as venues in Hungary, Indonesia, Japan.
In 2009, Sanford realised several new commission works for the New York Percent for the Arts; Creative Capital, New York; The Kitchen, New York, and Harvard University’s Office of Fine Art. Biggers is full time faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University Sculpture and Expanded Media programme and a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s VES and OFA Departments.