Chloë Bass
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Biography
Chloë Bass (b.1984) was born in New York, NY and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She adopts a research-based approach to artmaking that utilizes a variety of complimentary forms, including performance, installation, video, photography, sculpture, text, and audio. Bass has long structured her practice around the exploration of intimacy. Examining different social structures—families, communities, political and governmental bodies, cultural entities, etc.—her work forwards an ever-expanding understanding of this concept that is simultaneously personal, yet universal. Characterizing this approach as “an invitation to come closer,” Bass engages and implicates viewers in her modes of inquiry to encourage them to “look more closely.”
Upon receiving her Master of Fine Arts in performance and interactive media at Brooklyn College, Bass began The Bureau of Self-Recognition (2011–13), a wide-ranging project that documents the process of self-exploration through photography, performance, video, audio, lectures, workshops, and structured conversations. This work encapsulates Bass’s belief that “it is through self-recognition that we shape our worlds,” and laid the foundation for her further investigations. Building on concepts from The Bureau of Self-Recognition, over the course of three years, Bass produced The Book of Everyday Instruction (2015–18). This eight-part project examines relationships between different entities from one-on-one interactions between couples to more sprawling partnerships between individuals and their surroundings that interrogate systemic issues and socioeconomic realities.
Obligation To Others Hold Me In My Place (2018–23) moves between studies of the public realm and family interactions. A continuation of her tracing of patterns of intimacy, Bass commissioned self-documented footage of American mixed-race families, which she plans to present in an upcoming four-channel video. “The idea of mixing (racially, culturally) is so often the product of violence: war, slavery, trade,” the artist explains. “… Mixture reminds us of the dangers that bring people together, and the challenging conditions that we persist to create.”
Bass further expands on notions of familial intimacy in her Wayfinding project (2019–22). Taking its title from the architectural term for the design elements that help individuals move through a space, this installation encourages viewers to emotionally orient themselves in a site. Consisting of a series of mirror-like billboards positing open-ended questions to viewers, as well as archival images, double-sided text signs, garden markers, and an audio component, the site-specific outdoor work invites introspection. Articulating various aspects of human emotions—compassion, desire, anxiety, and loss—the meditative work speaks to Bass’s personal experience growing up in New York City. Reflecting on being alone in the city’s public spaces, Bass explains her feelings as combining “the sudden sense of everything as fascinating” with “the strange anxiety between feeling invisible and suddenly becoming aware that you are seen.”
More recent projects by Bass include Soft Services (2022), a series of sixteen sculptural stone benches inscribed with phrases written by the artist and marked with an image rendered in light-responsive pigment. This body of work was installed throughout Volunteer Park and outside the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, WA in 2022. Bass’s #sky #nofilter: Hindsight for a Future America (2023), a participatory glass sundial the artist developed as a capstone to a series of investigations around the 2016 US presidential election, recently debuted at the California African American Museum (CAAM) in Los Angeles, CA. In addition, a public artwork by the artist commissioned by MTA Arts & Design for a subway station in Brooklyn will be unveiled later this year.
Bass’s nuanced, multidimensional works ultimately draw parallels between the private and public to question the way individuals navigate the world and respond to social, political, and psychological environments. “I think of all the works that I make as having the potential emotional resonance that they could remind you of something in your own life,” explains Bass, who ultimately concludes that her projects serve as “… souvenirs for memories you haven’t had yet.”
The artist’s work has been the subject of many one-person exhibitions, including Wayfinding, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA (2022); #sky #nofilter: Hindsight for a Future America, co-presented by Art + Practice and California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Wayfinding, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO (2021); Wayfinding, St. Nicholas Park, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2019); The Book of Everyday Instruction, Knockdown Center, Queens, NY (2018); and The Bureau of Self-Recognition, Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY (2013), among others. The artist’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including In These Truths, Albright-Knox Northland, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY (2022); Close to You, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2022); Art on the Grid, Public Art Fund, New York (2020); Urban Design Lab: Chloë Bass and Teal Gardner, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE (2014), among others. Bass’s performances have been spotlighted at COUNTERPUBLIC, St. Louis, MO (2019); Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin, Germany (2019); and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2018), among others. She is the recipient of many awards and grants, including New York University Future Imagination Fund Fellowship (2022); Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Arts and Culture Grant for SPCUNY (2021); Art Matters Fellowship (2019), among others. Bass’s major projects often culminate in publications. Working in collaboration with artists, writers, organizations, and publishers, she has released #sky #nofilter (2020); The Book of Everyday Instruction (2018); Art as Social Action (2018); Say Something, Jamie (2018); What is shared, what is offered (2017); and The Bureau of Self-Recognition (2013). The artist is an Associate Professor of Art at Queens College, CUNY, where she has co-directed Social Practice Queens (SPQ) with Dr. Gregory Sholette since 2016 and established Social Practice CUNY (SPCUNY) in 2021.
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Series
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Soft Services
2022Chloë Bass’s Soft Services (2022) encompasses a series of sculptural stone benches inscribed with phrases written by the artist and marked with a silhouette of a local plant rendered in... -
Wayfinding
2019–2022Chloë Bass expands on notions of familial intimacy in her Wayfinding project (2019–22). Taking its title from the architectural term for the design elements that help individuals move through a... -
The Parts
2018–presentChloë Bass’s The Parts (2018–ongoing) is an ongoing body of work that considers public and private experiences across text and photographs. Originally developed through a series of public social media... -
Obligation To Others Holds Me In My Place
2018–2023In Obligation To Others Hold Me In My Place (2018–23) Chloë Bass moves between studies of the public realm and family interactions. A continuation of her tracing of patterns of... -
#sky #nofilter
2016–2023Chloë Bass’s #sky #nofilter (2016–23) comprises a series of investigations around the 2016 US presidential election. The project began as a compilation of photographs taken with the artist’s iPhone of... -
The Book of Everyday Instruction
2015–2018Building on concepts from The Bureau of Self-Recognition (2011–13), over the course of three years, Chloë Bass produced The Book of Everyday Instruction (2015–18). This eight-part project examines relationships between... -
The Bureau of Self-Recognition
2011–2013Upon receiving her Master of Fine Arts in performance and interactive media at Brooklyn College, Chloë Bass began The Bureau of Self-Recognition (2011–13), a wide-ranging project that documents the process...
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Other Exhibitions
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Chloë Bass: Wayfinding
Skirball Cultural Center 17 November 2022 - 3 September 2023The third phase of Chloë Bass's solo exhibition Chloë Bass: Wayfinding at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA. The Skirball Cultural Center's press release follows: LOS ANGELES, CA—The Skirball... -
Chloë Bass: #sky #nofilter: Hindsight for a Future America
California African American Museum 17 September 2022 - 21 January 2023 -
Soft Services
Henry Art Gallery 1 August 2022 - 31 August 2024Chloë Bass's solo exhibition Soft Services at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. The Henry Art Gallery's press release follows: Chloë Bass (b. 1984, New York) is... -
Chloë Bass: Wayfinding
Pulitzer Arts Foundation 17 April - 14 November 2021The second phase of Chloë Bass's solo exhibition Chloë Bass: Wayfinding at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, MO. The Pulitzer Arts Foundation's press release follows: Chloë Bass (b. 1984)... -
Close to You
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art 3 April 2021 - 20 March 2022 -
Art on the Grid
Public Art Fund 29 June - 20 September 2020 -
Chloë Bass: Wayfinding (Phase 1)
The Studio Museum in Harlem 28 September 2019 - 27 September 2020 -
Chloë Bass: The Book of Everyday Instruction
Knockdown Center 21 April - 17 June 2018Chloë Bass's one-person exhibition Chloë Bass: The Book of Everyday Instruction at the Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY. The Knockdown Center's press release follows: Knockdown Center presents Chloë Bass: The Book...
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Public Collections
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Videos
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Chloë Bass on #sky #nofilter
Hindsight for a Future America at the California African American Museum (2023) -
Chloë Bass on Wayfinding
at the Pulitzer for the Higher Education Channel (2021) -
Chloë Bass on Wayfinding
at The Studio Museum in Harlem for Box Burners (2020) -
Chloë Bass on The Bureau of Self-Recognition
BOMB Magazine (2013)
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News / Events
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Chloë Bass
California African American Museum June 21, 2023Chloë Bass's public sculpture and performance art project, Chloë Bass | #sky #nofilter: Hindsight for a Future America at California African American Museum in Los Angeles, CA.
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Chloë Bass
Alexander Gray Associates June 1, 2023Alexander Gray Associates announces representation of Chloë Bass (b. 1984). Bass's research-based approach to artmaking utilizes a variety of complimentary forms, including performance, installation, video, photography, sculpture, text, and audio.
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Chloë Bass
Skirball Cultural Center November 17, 2022The third phase of Chloë Bass's one-person exhibition Chloë Bass: Wayfinding at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA.
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Chloë Bass
Henry Art Gallery August 1, 2022Chloë Bass's one-person exhibition Soft Services at the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
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Articles / Reviews