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Chris Burden, A Tale of Two Cities, 1981, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Color Is the First Revelation of the World

Through August 18, 2024
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California
ocma.art

Drawing inspiration from the color theories of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980), this exhibition explores the intersections of color and form, emphasizing the transformative nature of art. Through a collection of monochromatic works in hues of blue, the works on view span the various histories of the twentieth century to pose timely questions about the world around us. Work by Chris Burden, Cy Twombly, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Chris Burden, A Tale of Two Cities, 1981, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Chris Burden, Kunst Kick (3 photographs and text), 1974 (detail), The Warehouse, Dallas © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Chris Burden Estate

On View

For What It’s Worth
Value Systems in Art since 1960

Through June 29, 2024
The Warehouse, Dallas
thewarehousedallas.org

Looking at global, conceptual art tendencies since 1960, For What It’s Worth focuses on artists who generate, question, and infect value systems through their work. These systems might address exchange, social structures, or philosophical intangibles, and many of the selected works share an exploration of the codification of values through language and patterns of behavior. Work by Chris Burden and Sterling Ruby is included.

Chris Burden, Kunst Kick (3 photographs and text), 1974 (detail), The Warehouse, Dallas © 2024 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: courtesy Chris Burden Estate

Chris Burden, Large Glass Ship, 1983, Orange County Museum, Costa Mesa, California © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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13 Women

October 8, 2022–August 27, 2023
Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California
ocma.art

13 Women marks the Orange County Museum of Art’s sixtieth anniversary; by paying homage to the thirteen women who founded the Balboa Pavilion Gallery, the OCMA’s predecessor institution, which was opened in 1962. The exhibition presents work from the 1960s to the present by the artists central to the museum’s collection, including Chris Burden and Ed Ruscha.

Chris Burden, Large Glass Ship, 1983, Orange County Museum, Costa Mesa, California © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jonas Wood, Brian and Ana, 2014 © Jonas Wood

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Together in Time
Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

March 26–August 20, 2023
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
hammer.ucla.edu

Presented in conjunction with the unveiling of the Hammer’s building expansion, Together in Time highlights acquisitions made since 2005—the year the institution began collecting contemporary art. Organized around a sequence of discrete installations that highlight varied groupings of artists, the exhibition presents the tendencies and sensibilities at the forefront of contemporary art by Los Angeles–based and international artists. Work by Amoako Boafo, Chris Burden, and Jonas Wood is included.

Jonas Wood, Brian and Ana, 2014 © Jonas Wood

Chris Burden, The Other Vietnam Memorial, 1991, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

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Chris Burden in
Enter the Mirror

September 10, 2022–July 23, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
visit.mcachicago.org

Enter the Mirror calls on the viewer to acknowledge truths that are difficult or unpleasant to see. In artworks from the late 1970s to the mid-2010s, twenty artists grapple with violence, trauma, corruption, historical distortion, and the abuse of power to confront facts and complicity that have shaped our world. This exhibition includes photography, painting, sculpture, video, and installations. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, The Other Vietnam Memorial, 1991, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Chris Burden, Small Skyscraper (Quasi Legal Los Angeles County), 2002 © 2023 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Brian Guido

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Escala: Escultura (1945–2000)

March 31–July 2, 2023
Fundación Juan March, Madrid
www.march.es

This exhibition, whose title translates to Scale: Sculpture, begins with a reflection on the effects of the Second World War on a number of artists and their conception of sculptural space as refuge. The role of scale in sculpture is examined, and in an echo of the expanded meaning of sculpture today, the exhibition extends beyond the gallery walls, into the gardens and the surrounding streets. Work by Chris Burden, Alberto Giacometti, Donald Judd, Henry Moore, and Richard Serra is included.

Chris Burden, Small Skyscraper (Quasi Legal Los Angeles County), 2002 © 2023 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Brian Guido

Chris Burden, The TV Commercials 1973–1977, 1973–77/2000 (still) © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

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Objects of Desire
Photography and the Language of Advertising

September 4–December 18, 2022
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
www.lacma.org

Objects of Desire traces the artistic manipulation of advertising through the works of photo-based artists. Since the 1970s, creative innovations have led to dramatic shifts in the possibilities for photography as artistic expression, and these artists have reworked and exploited the vocabulary and strategies of advertising to challenge the increased commodification of daily life. Through re-photography, appropriation, and simulation, these artists challenge the viewer to determine what exactly these pictures are asking of us. Work by Chris Burden and Roe Ethridge is included.

Chris Burden, The TV Commercials 1973–1977, 1973–77/2000 (still) © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

Chris Burden, The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, 1979, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Riyo Studio

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Chris Burden in
The Reason for the Neutron Bomb

June 4–October 23, 2022
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Downtown
mcasd.org

Comprised of pieces from the museum’s collection, this exhibition presents the timely and poignant works of Chris Burden and Byron Kim. Burden’s large-scale installation, which gives the exhibition its title, was created in 1979, during the Cold War, and consists of fifty thousand nickels topped with fifty thousand matchsticks to represent the Soviet Union’s military tanks. These outnumbered the tanks in the Western Bloc’s collective armies by more than two to one at the time—a fact the US military used to justify its development of nuclear weapons.

Chris Burden, The Reason for the Neutron Bomb, 1979, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego © 2022 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Riyo Studio

Chris Burden, Wexner Castle, 1990/2020 © Chris Burden/Licensed by The Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Chris Burden in
Climate Changing: On Artists, Institutions, and the Social Environment

January 30–May 9, 2021
Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus
wexarts.org

Climate Changing foregrounds contemporary artists’ engagement with social issues and shaping institutions—an engagement that has become all the more critical during the entwined crises of systemic racism and COVID-19. Together the works in the exhibition encourage a collective reimagining of our social environment. In addition to presenting nine commissioned works, the exhibition restages a work commissioned for the Center’s inaugural year: Chris Burden’s Wexner Castle (1990). By adding battlements to the brick sections of the building’s deconstructivist design (a reference to the Armory that once stood on its site), the late artist’s work encourages visitors to reflect on the role museums play in today’s society.

Chris Burden, Wexner Castle, 1990/2020 © Chris Burden/Licensed by The Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Chris Burden, The Atomic Alphabet, 1980 © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Disonata
Arte en sonido hasta 1980

September 23, 2020–March 1, 2021
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
www.museoreinasofia.es

This exhibition, whose English title is Disonata: Art in Sound up to 1980, analyzes the development of sound as a creative field of visual arts differentiated from music across the first eighty years of the twentieth century. The show reflects the efforts of artists who resorted to sound beyond its traditional use in such manifestations as mixed-media work, poetry, and theater. Work by  Chris Burden and Nam June Paik is included.

Chris Burden, The Atomic Alphabet, 1980 © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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All of the Above
2011–2020

September 24–December 27, 2020
Kanal–Centre Pompidou, Brussels
kanal.brussels

Curated by artist John Armleder, All of the Above was inspired by his memories of feeling that he was being observed in return by the cultural artifacts he saw when he visited museums and temples as a child. This exhibition seeks to reproduce that experience by presenting a constellation of works by more than forty artists on a large multilevel platform to form a landscape that visitors can explore from a distance. Work by Chris Burden, Olivier Mosset, and Blair Thurman is included.

Chris Burden, L.A.P.D. Uniforms, 1993, installation view, Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900–2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Museum Associates/LACMA

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Chris Burden in
States of Mind: Art and American Democracy

September 18–December 19, 2020
Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston
moody.rice.edu

Reflecting on some of the most pressing topics facing American democracy, States of Mind is timed to coincide with the 2020 presidential election in order to encourage dialogue around current social and political issues. Many of the works on view examine the status of our country’s founding principles of freedom and equality, while others engage with questions of voting access, gun control, and immigration policies—three issues that are common throughout the United States and that are of particular concern to Texas. The exhibition does not attempt to cover the myriad complexities of a democratic government but rather invites viewers to consider timely yet recurrent questions around these themes. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, L.A.P.D. Uniforms, 1993, installation view, Made in California: Art, Image and Identity, 1900–2000, Los Angeles County Museum of Art © Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Museum Associates/LACMA

Chris Burden, Metropolis, 2004 © 2020 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Keizo Kioku

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Chris Burden in
Where We Now Stand: In Order to Map the Future [2]

October 12, 2019–April 12, 2020
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
www.kanazawa21.jp

This exhibition reinterprets work from the museum’s collection to examine the world today. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, Metropolis, 2004 © 2020 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Keizo Kioku

Chris Burden, Exposing the Foundation of the Museum, 1986 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Squidds and Nunns

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The Foundation of the Museum
MOCA’s Collection

May 19, 2019–January 20, 2020
Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles
www.moca.org

To mark the museum’s fortieth anniversary, this exhibition presents a selected topography of artworks that speak to the diversity of MOCA’s collecting over the past four decades. With special emphasis on works associated with the museum’s remarkable history of exhibitions, The Foundation of the Museum: MOCA’s Collection shows the institution’s holdings as shaped by a changing landscape of developments in contemporary art and curatorial focus, as well by as the social and cultural backdrops that inform them. Work by Chris Burden, Mike Kelley, Bruce Nauman, Albert Oehlen, Nancy Rubins, and Ed Ruscha is included.

Chris Burden, Exposing the Foundation of the Museum, 1986 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Squidds and Nunns

Chris Burden, 1/4 Carat Diamond 1/4 Carat Cubic Zirconium Magnified 25 Times, #3, 2007 © 2020 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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Crystals in Art
Ancient to Today

October 12, 2019–January 6, 2020
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
crystalbridges.org

Crystals in Art explores the connections between crystals and art throughout the world, spanning history and geography. The exhibition includes a selection of works and specimens from ancient Egypt up to the present day and addresses broader recurring themes in the history of crystals such as science and religion, art and medicine, aesthetic beauty and transformation, and more. Work by Chris Burden, Pablo Picasso, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol is included.

Chris Burden, 1/4 Carat Diamond 1/4 Carat Cubic Zirconium Magnified 25 Times, #3, 2007 © 2020 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Barbara T. Smith

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Chris Burden in
Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975

September 29, 2019–January 5, 2020
Minneapolis Institute of Art
new.artsmia.org

Artists Respond brings together nearly one hundred works by fifty-eight of the most visionary and provocative artists and collectives of the Vietnam War era. Galvanized by the moral urgency of the conflict, these artists reimagined the goals and uses of art across multiple movements and media: painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance and body art, installation, documentary art, and conceptual art. This exhibition has traveled from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Barbara T. Smith

Chris Burden, TV Hijack, 1972 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Gary Beydler

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Chris Burden in
Closer Look: Intimate-Scale Sculpture from the Permanent Collection

April 7–September 1, 2019
Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California
docs.wixstatic.com

This exhibition provides a focused look at small sculpture in OCMA’s permanent collection. Selected for their innovative materials and playfulness in scale and function, the artworks in Closer Look are intended to be viewed at a close distance, providing the viewer with intimate moments in which to make slow and careful observations about content and construction. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, TV Hijack, 1972 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Gary Beydler

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Barbara T. Smith

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Chris Burden in
Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975

March 15–August 18, 2019
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
americanart.si.edu

Artists Respond brings together nearly one hundred works by fifty-eight of the most visionary and provocative artists and collectives of the Vietnam War era. Galvanized by the moral urgency of the conflict, these artists reimagined the goals and uses of art across multiple movements and media: painting, sculpture, printmaking, performance and body art, installation, documentary art, and conceptual art. Work by Chris Burden is included.

Chris Burden, Shoot, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Barbara T. Smith

Chris Burden, Relic for Disappearing, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Brian Forrest

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Chris Burden in
Disappearing—California, c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, Jack Goldstein

May 10–August 11, 2019
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
www.themodern.org

In 1971, Chris Burden disappeared for three days without a trace. That work, titled Disappearing, gives its name to this exhibition, which examines the theme of disappearance in the works of Burden and his contemporaries in 1970s Southern California, Bas Jan Ader and Jack Goldstein.

Chris Burden, Relic for Disappearing, 1971 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Brian Forrest

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Someday, 2018 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane, courtesy the artist and M+B, Los Angeles

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Dirty Protest
Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

January 24–May 19, 2019
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
hammer.ucla.edu

This exhibition highlights a lively mix of painting, sculpture, and media installations by more than thirty international established and emerging artists, drawn from the Hammer Museum’s collection. Work by Chris Burden and Nathaniel Mary Quinn is included.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Someday, 2018 © Nathaniel Mary Quinn. Photo: Jeff McLane, courtesy the artist and M+B, Los Angeles

Chris Burden, All the Submarines of the United States of America, 1987 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Benoit Pailley

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Unsettled

October 27, 2018–April 30, 2019
Palm Springs Art Museum, California
www.psmuseum.org

Unsettled, cocurated by JoAnne Northrup and Ed Ruscha, amasses two hundred artworks by eighty artists spanning two thousand years to explore the geography of frontiers characterized by vast expanses of open land, rich natural resources, diverse indigenous peoples, colonialism, and the ongoing conflicts that inevitably arise when these factors coexist. This exhibition originated at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno. Work by Chris Burden and Ed Ruscha is included.

Chris Burden, All the Submarines of the United States of America, 1987 © 2019 Chris Burden/Licensed by the Chris Burden Estate and Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Benoit Pailley

Ed Ruscha, Rancho, 1968 © Ed Ruscha

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Unsettled

April 20–September 9, 2018
Anchorage Museum, Alaska
www.anchoragemuseum.org

Unsettled, co-curated by JoAnne Northrup and Ed Ruscha, amasses two hundred artworks by eighty artists spanning two thousand years to explore the geography of frontiers characterized by vast expanses of open land, rich natural resources, diverse indigenous peoples, colonialism, and the ongoing conflicts that inevitably arise when these factors coexist. This exhibition traveled from the Nevada Museum of Art. Work by Chris Burden and Ed Ruscha is included.

Ed Ruscha, Rancho, 1968 © Ed Ruscha

Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986 © Jeff Koons.Photo by Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

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We Are Here

August 19, 2017–April 1, 2018
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
mcachicago.org

In honor of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s fiftieth anniversary, the museum presents We Are Here, a three-part exhibition drawn from its collection. I Am You gathers works that question how we relate to and shape our environments; You Are Here examines how the role of the viewer has changed over time; and We Are Everywhere showcases artists who borrow from popular culture. Work by Richard Artschwager, Francis Bacon, Chris Burden, Ellen Gallagher, Andreas Gursky, Michael Heizer, Jasper Johns, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Rudolf Stingel, Andy Warhol, and Franz West is included.

Jeff Koons, Rabbit, 1986 © Jeff Koons.
Photo by Nathan Keay © MCA Chicago

Ed Ruscha, Lost Empires, Living Tribes, 1984, Marciano Collection, Los Angeles

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Unsettled

August 26, 2017–January 21, 2018
Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
www.nevadaart.org

Unsettled, co-curated by JoAnne Northrup and Ed Ruscha, amasses two hundred artworks by eighty artists spanning two thousand years to explore the geography of frontiers characterized by vast expanses of open land, rich natural resources, diverse indigenous peoples, colonialism, and the ongoing conflicts that inevitably arise when these factors coexist. Work by Chris Burden and Ed Ruscha is included.

Ed Ruscha, Lost Empires, Living Tribes, 1984, Marciano Collection, Los Angeles