TIFFANY SHLAIN
Human Nature
September 5 - October 19, 2024
IN THE NEWS
From September 5 - October 19, 2024, Nancy Hoffman Gallery will host its first solo exhibition of work by artist Tiffany Shlain, titled Human Nature. The exhibition will include a selection of Shlain’s tree-ring sculptures, light boxes, and photographs, among other works at the intersection of feminism, philosophy, technology, neuroscience, and nature.
Says Shlain, “In Human Nature, I look at what happens when we step back to view ourselves within the expansiveness of nature and time through the lens of feminism, neuroscience, ecology, and philosophy. I consider how this scale realignment can change our perspective, offer context, reveal absurdities, and evoke humility, insights, and awe.”
Nancy Hoffman comments, “I was drawn to Tiffany’s work for many reasons. She is a Renaissance woman in the 21st century, having achieved acclaim in the film industry, and having authored a book entitled 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day A Week, proposing a break from screens one day a week, which can lead to rest, renewal and spiritual centering. Her arrival at art making was organic and in tandem with the pandemic as she found solace in Muir Woods and the grandeur of Bay Area National parks and forests. Her artwork retelling stories on tree rings, her large scale lightboxes and super graphics are profound, unique and compelling.”
In 2023 and 2024, Shlain will be exhibiting her work throughout the U.S. Highlights include:
From November 1 to 4, 2023, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Shlain’s sculpture DENDROFEMONOLOGY: A Feminist History Tree Ring, will be installed on the National Mall presented by the National Women’s History Museum and Women Connect4Good. There will be four days of events and activations, including by such artists as Michele Pred and organizations like the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, The ERA Coalition, and Vital Voices Programming, with participating organizations sharing information online from the National Mall to amplify their missions. Ms Magazine calls “...Dendrofemonology a bullseye for collective action.” For more information, visit: https://letitripple.org/dc
From September 30, 2023 to January 7, 2024 at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
Shlain’s work is included in The de Young Open—the second edition of this triennial—celebrating the diverse talents of the Bay Area arts community. The exhibition features a large-scale photograph of Shlain’s DENDROFEMONOLOGY: A Feminist History Tree Ring. For more information, visit: https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/de-young-open-2023
Beginning in October 2024 in Los Angeles, as part of the Getty Initiative PST Art and Science Collide, Shlain and her husband, Ken Goldberg, will present their work in the exhibition Ancient Wisdom for A Future Ecology, at the Skirball Cultural Center. For more information visit: https://pst.art/en/exhibitions/trees-time-and-technology-ancient-wisdom-for-a-future-ec ology
About the Artist
Tiffany Shlain is an interdisciplinary artist and was born in San Francisco (1970). She received her BA in interdisciplinary studies from University of California Berkeley where she was valedictorian speaker and studied filmmaking at New York University’s Sight & Sound program. She is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. Her work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Women’s History Museum, the de Young Museum of Fine Arts, the Sundance Film Festival, Contemporary Jewish Museum and embassies globally. Her awards and distinctions include selection by the Albert Einstein Foundation for their Genius100 list, the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Intellectual Activity, and artist residencies at the San Francisco Ferry Building SHACK15 and the Headlands Center for the Arts. She lives in Northern California.
FILM