Can­dice Breitz

Born Johan­nes­burg, South Africa 1972

Lives and works in Berlin

The mov­ing-image instal­la­tions of Can­dice Bre­itz offer nuanced stud­ies in the struc­ture of iden­ti­ty under glob­al cap­i­tal­ism. Through­out her career, she has explored the process by which an indi­vid­ual becomes them­self in rela­tion to a larg­er com­mu­ni­ty. She explores the influ­ences of pop­u­lar cul­ture and the media on con­tem­po­rary under­stand­ings of the self.

Bre­itz came to inter­na­tion­al promi­nence with a suite of group video por­traits depict­ing fans singing songs by musi­cal icons such as Madon­na, John Lennon, Bob Mar­ley and Michael Jack­son. In such works, she explores how mass celebri­ty affects the devel­op­ment of indi­vid­ual per­son­al­i­ty. Recent­ly, she has turned her atten­tion to ques­tions of empa­thy and iden­ti­fi­ca­tion in the cur­rent high­ly medi­at­ed culture.

Works by Can­dice Bre­itz have been acquired by muse­ums includ­ing MoMA / Muse­um of Mod­ern Art and Solomon R. Guggen­heim Muse­um, New York; San Fran­cis­co Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, San Fran­cis­co; Nation­al Gallery of Cana­da, Ottawa; FNAC / Fonds Nation­al d’Art Con­tem­po­rain, France; Castel­lo di Riv­o­li, Turin; Ham­burg­er Kun­sthalle, Ham­burg; M+ / Muse­um of Visu­al Cul­ture, Hong Kong; Nation­al Gallery of Vic­to­ria, Mel­bourne; Kun­st­mu­se­um Licht­en­stein, Vaduz; MONA / Muse­um of Old and New Art, Tas­ma­nia; QAGO­MA / Queens­land Art Gallery & Gallery of Mod­ern Art, Bris­bane; and MAXXI / Museo Nazionale Delle Arti del XXI Sec­o­lo, Rome.

CV

Bib­li­og­ra­phy