Sanford Biggers' work is an interplay of narrative, perspective and history that speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings, while also examining the contexts that bore them. His diverse practice positions him as a collaborator with the past through explorations of often overlooked cultural and political narratives from American history. Working with antique quilts that echo rumors of their use as signposts on the Underground Railroad, he engages these legends and contributes to this narrative by drawing and painting directly onto them. Biggers deconstructs the quilts and rebuilds them into 2D quilt paintings. Over the past several years, these works have grown to include new 3D abstract sculptures.
Biggers (b.1970, Los Angeles, CA) received a BA from Morehouse College, Atlanta, and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he sits on the Board of Governors. He was a former Associate Professor at Columbia University's Visual Arts program. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1998). Notable solo exhibitions include moniquemeloche, Chicago, IL (2023), Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY (2023); Chazen Museum, Madison, WI (2023); Salina Art Center Kansas, Salina, KS (2022); Speed Museum, Louisville, KY (2022); The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C. (2021); The California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2021); and The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY (2020). Notable group exhibitions include MFA Houston, TX (2024); Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO (2024); Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO (2023-24); Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, The Netherlands (2023-24); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (2023); Rudolph Tegner Museum, Dronningmølle, Denmark (2022); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (2022); Cleveland Art Museum of Art and Design, Cleveland, OH (2022); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR (2022); Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Museum, NY(2021); Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2021); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (2021); Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY (2021); Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, TX (2021); and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2020).
Public collections include The Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL; The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Bass Museum, Miami, FL; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; The Bronx Museum, New York, NY; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Museum of Art and Design, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others. Biggers has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Bronx Museum’s Art and Social Justice Award (2024), Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2024); the 26th Heinz Award for the Arts (2021), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2020), and a Joyce Foundation Award and NEA Grant (2015) for assisting with a year-long project in Detroit that resulted in Subjective Cosmology, his solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2016). He also received the Arts and Letters Award in Art (2018) presented by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Biggers currently lives and works in New York, NY.