Jump to content

Banks Violette

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Banks Violette
Born (1973-10-10) October 10, 1973 (age 52)
Ithaca, New York
EducationSchool of Visual Arts, Columbia University
Known forSculpture, Installation art

Banks Violette (born October 10, 1973) is an American visual artist based in Ithaca, New York.[1][2] He is best known for large-scale, monochromatic sculptures and installations made from industrial materials. His practice often references real-life events and metal and punk subcultures through refined form.[3][4] Violette’s work has been shown at art institutions and is held in permanent collections around the world.

Biography

[edit]

Violette was born in Ithaca, New York on October 10, 1973. He worked as a tattoo artist while obtaining his G.E.D. and then attended Tompkins Cortland Community College before studying at the School of Visual Arts in New York, earning a BFA in 1998. He graduated with an MFA from Columbia University in 2000.[5][2][6] He was based in Brooklyn during the 2000s. After a period of high activity and success, he returned to Ithaca around 2012 and stopped exhibiting new work for six years.[1][4]

Work

[edit]

Materials and style

[edit]
Installation featuring black structural elements arranged on a gray floor in a white-walled space.
Voidhanger (Twin Channel). All Tomorrows Graves, 2006

While Banks Violette is best known for his large-scale sculptures and installations, his practice also encompasses graphite drawings.[5][1] He often employs industrial materials and fabrication. His work is characterized by primarily monochromatic palettes combined with distinctive and highly controlled surfaces that are typically glossy, polished, reflective, and sometimes damaged.[7] Violette's sculpture and installation work often incorporates scaffolding-like structures, exposed frameworks, stage-like elements, lighting, and a sense of constructed environments.[7][3]

Themes and influences

[edit]

Violette is influenced by Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. His work has been linked to artists including Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Robert Smithson.[5][8] It has been described by Francesca Gavin as New Gothic Art.[9] Recurring forms include architectural ruins such as churches, fluorescent lighting, and destroyed instruments. Recurring subjects include violence, death, and pathological behavior. He refers to real crimes and ritualized violence through indirect narrative devices such as relics, traces, and aftermath, rather than depicting them explicitly. His work has been described as memorial-like, often structured like true-crime fragments.[10] Violette engages with concepts of entropy, instability, decay, and collapse, while examining slippage between fiction, belief, and real-world action. He creates tension between disturbing subject matter and refined form. He draws on punk and black metal iconography as source material.[5][4] In addition, his work has been associated with film noir aesthetics, especially darkness, shadow, and low-key lighting.[11] Despite the disturbing implications of Violette’s themes, some have described the tone as cold, detached, restrained, and impassive.[7][4]

Major works and exhibitions

[edit]

Violette's work has been shown internationally. Major exhibitions include the Whitney Biennial in 2004,[12] a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2005,[13] as well as exhibitions at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt,[14] Museum Boijmans van Beuningen,[15] and the Migros Museum in Zurich.[16] He participated in the "Greater New York" exhibition at MoMA PS1 in 2005[4][8] and the 2006 "USA Today" exhibition at the Royal Academy[17][18] in London. He held a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut titled "American Standard" from March 15 to June 15, 2025.[19]

For his first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City from May 27 to October 2, 2005, Violette erected a recreation of a burned-out church on a black stage.[5] The work was inspired by an image from the cover of black metal band Burzum's Aske EP (1993).[10] [20] It was further influenced by real-life events within the Norwegian black metal scene, such as a series of arson attacks on churches as well as violence including murders.[21]

For Steven Parrino / FTW (Dark Matter), 2006, oil enamel on canvas, 59 x 134 inches (149.86 x 340.36 cm)

In 2006, Violette curated a group show titled War on 45 / My Mirrors are Painted Black (For You). The show included a painting titled For Steven Parrino / FTW (Dark Matter) produced by Violette in collaboration with Gardar Eide Einarsson and dedicated to artist Steven Parrino.[22]

Collaborations

[edit]

Violette frequently uses collaboration in the development of his installations. Stephen O'Malley of Sunn O))) provided the soundtrack for Violette's 2007 double show at Team Gallery and Gladstone Gallery in New York City.[3]

Violette collaborated with Celine under creative director Hedi Slimane for the Fall/Winter 2022 menswear collection.[23] In 2023, he created a series of fluorescent chandelier works for the brand.[24]

Collections

[edit]

Violette's work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art,[25] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,[26] the Whitney Museum of American Art,[27] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[28] the Centre Pompidou,[29] the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva,[5] and the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zurich.[30]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Goldstein, Andrew (21 April 2017). "An Artist Returns From the Edge (Published 2017)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-06-16.
  2. ^ a b "Banks Violette (with Stephen O'Malley)". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  3. ^ a b c Rosenberg, Karen (June 25, 2007). "Renouncing the Dark Arts". New York. Retrieved June 5, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e Wetzler, Rachel (2026-02-01). "Forever 2001". Artforum. Retrieved 2026-04-18.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Momin, Shamim M. (2005). Banks Violette. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art. ISBN 0-87427-147-9.
  6. ^ Homes, A. M. (December 2006). "The Way They Work". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2026-03-20.
  7. ^ a b c Banks Violette. Salzburg: Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac. 2007. pp. 55–58. ISBN 3-901935-35-5.
  8. ^ a b Sonnenborn, Katie Stone (September 2005). "Displaced Histories: The Art of Banks Violette | The Brooklyn Rail". brooklynrail.org. Retrieved 2026-04-27.
  9. ^ Francesca Gavin, "The Art of Fear", Dazed & Confused, volume 2, issue 66, October 2008, p. 155.
  10. ^ a b Castro, Jan Garden (Dec 1, 2005). "Focus: Conversation with Ghosts: Banks Violette". Sculpture. 24 (10): 18–19.
  11. ^ Elevator to the Gallows. Nürnberg: Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg. 2009. pp. 78–89. ISBN 978-3-941185-35-7.
  12. ^ "Whitney Biennial 2004 | Art & Artists". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  13. ^ "Banks Violette: Untitled". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 2026-04-27.
  14. ^ "The Youth of Today". e-flux. April 4, 2006. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  15. ^ "Dark". e-flux. March 8, 2006. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  16. ^ "Collection on Display". Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  17. ^ "Schlock and awe". The Guardian. 2006-10-05. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  18. ^ Corris, Michael (November 2006). "America Rising – So much expected so little delivered – Michael Corris on post 9/11 art from the USA". Art Monthly. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  19. ^ "Banks Violette: American Standard". MoCA CT. 2025-02-03. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  20. ^ Lesourd, Elodie (2013). "Baptism or Death: Black Metal in Contemporary Art, Birth of a New Aesthetic Category". Helvete 1: Incipit. Punctum Books. p. 33.
  21. ^ Davis, Ben (August 2, 2005). "Ultra-Violette". Artnet Magazine. Retrieved April 27, 2026.
  22. ^ War on 45 / My Mirrors are Painted Black (For You), Bortolami Dayan Gallery, New York NY, June 29 – September 2, 2006. Retrieved October 6, 2022.
  23. ^ Conti, Samantha (2022-03-03). "Celine Men's Fall 2022". WWD. Retrieved 2026-05-02.
  24. ^ Needham, Alex (2023-11-28). "Back with a crash bang: Banks Violette on his wrecked chandelier self-portraits". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-04-29.
  25. ^ "Banks Violette. lines of wreckage (lovesongs for assholes) #2. 2003 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  26. ^ "Banks Violette (with Stephen O'Malley) | bleed". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  27. ^ "Banks Violette | DeadStar Memorial Structure (on their hands at last a) 4.1.94". whitney.org. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  28. ^ "Jagermeister/Baphomet (3rd version) | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved 2026-04-08.
  29. ^ "6-Channel bleed". Centre Pompidou. Retrieved 2026-04-28.
  30. ^ "Banks Violette". Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst. Retrieved 2026-04-28.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Banks_Violette&oldid=1360014175"