 (b. 1960) has created films, photographs, and other multidisciplinary projects that investigate the parameters of their respective mediums. His ongoing inquiry into technology’s role in image making, and how those mediations infiltrate and shape collective memory, has resulted in works that are at once specific in their historical and cultural references and broadly accessible. 

Douglas was born in Vancouver and studied at Emily Carr College of Art in Vancouver in the early 1980s. He was one of the earliest artists to be represented by David Zwirner, where he had his first American solo exhibition in 1993—the second show in the gallery’s history.

In 2022, the artist represented his native Canada at the Venice Biennale, where he debuted a major video installation, 

 (2022), and a related body of photographs. Subsequently, the exhibition 

 traveled around Canada with stops at The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (fall 2022); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (February–April 2023); and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (September 2023–October 2024). A solo exhibition also titled 

 was subsequently staged in 2023 at De Pont Museum, Tilburg, the Netherlands. In 2023, this body of work inaugurated David Zwirner’s new Los Angeles location, and it is currently on view at the Parque de Serralves in Porto, Portugal, through January 12, 2025.

The artist’s permanent public commission 

 was unveiled in Moynihan Train Hall, Penn Station, New York, in 2021. This body of work, commissioned by Empire State Development in partnership with Public Art Fund on the occasion of the dedication of New York City’s new Moynihan Train Hall, is composed of nine vignettes arranged into four thematic panels that explore the rich history of Penn Station.

Douglas’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide since the 1980s, including DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam, Germany (2022); Phi Foundation, Montreal (2022); Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax (2022); Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris (2021); Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (2021); Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin (2019–2020); Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg (2018); Pérez Art Museum Miami (2016); Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria (2016); Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg, Sweden (2016); WIELS Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels (2015); and Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon (2015). In 2013, a major survey of the artist’s work, 

, was presented at Carré d’Art – Musée d’Art Contemporain in Nîmes, France. It traveled as 

 to Haus der Kunst, Munich; Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen; and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin through 2015. Additional solo exhibitions include the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2014); Minneapolis Institute of Arts (2012); Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (2007); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005); Serpentine Gallery, London (2002); Centre Pompidou, Paris (1994); and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1987).

Douglas’s work has been featured in the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2001, 2005, 2019, and 2022, and in documenta in 1992, 1997, and 2002. Douglas’s first multimedia theater production, 

, debuted at The Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver, in March 2014 and has subsequently been hosted by the Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich; Edinburgh International Festival; Canadian Stage, Toronto; Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; De Singel, Antwerp; and Center for the Art of Performance, University of California, Los Angeles (co-organized by Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

Douglas has been the recipient of notable awards, including the Audain Prize for Visual Art (2019); the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2016); the third annual Scotiabank Photography Award (2013); and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York (2012). In 2021, Douglas was knighted as a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2023 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Simon Fraser University, Greater Vancouver.

Work by the artist is held in major museum collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Pérez Art Museum Miami; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, United Kingdom; Vancouver Art Gallery; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Douglas lives and works in Vancouver.

Text by Reid Shier with contributions by Erika Balsom, Ma’an Abu Taleb, George E. Lewis, and Samir Gandesha

Stan Douglas, one of the most compelling voices in Canadian contemporary art, has long explored critical, sociocultural, and political change. His exhibition for the 59th Biennale di Venezia, 

, reflects upon the language of protest, revolution, and the uprisings witnessed across the globe in 2011. Douglas’ four large-scale hybrid documentary photographs re-stage protests in Tunis, London, New York, and Vancouver, and his two-channel HD video, 

, presents Grime and Mahraganat rappers exchanging subversive lyrics between studios in London and Cairo.

This stunning 288-page illustrated catalogue, published in English, French, and Arabic, features some 100 full-colour detailed images that meticulously capture behind-the-scenes views of Douglas’ elaborate productions. Essays by leading international cultural thinkers examine the artist’s work in relation to music, political economy, contemporary media theory, and the rise of Grime and Mahraganat.

Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848

Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848 | Books

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.