Jack Pierson (born 1960 inPlymouth,Massachusetts) is an Americanphotographer and anartist. Pierson is known for his photographs,collages, word sculptures, installations, drawings and artists books. His "Self-Portrait" series was shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. His works are held in numerous museum collections.
Jack Pierson graduated fromMassachusetts College of Art and Design in 1984.[1] He received a bachelors in fine arts . He spent his last year in college atCooper Union doing an exchange program.[2]
Pierson's practice embodies an array of media spanning from wall-drawings, word-pieces, installations, drawings, paintings and photographs.[3] He is considered to be part of a group of photographers known as theBoston School --David Armstrong,Philip-Lorca diCorcia,Nan Goldin,Mark Morrisroe and twinsDoug and Mike Starn,[4] among others. All of them knew one another in the early 1980s and photographed their immediate circle of friends in situations that were, or appeared to be, casual or intimate.[5]
Pierson first began making hisWord Sculptures in 1991, utilizing found objects – mismatched letters salvaged from junkyards, old movie marquees, roadside diners, Las Vegas casinos, and other forsaken enterprises. The word sculptures create individual words or phrases that evoke a multiplicity of meanings.[6]
Commissioned in 1997 by the artistic collective Bernadette Corporation, Pierson's videoPast Life in Egypt is a collaboration withUrsula Hodel, who plays an outrageous and glamorous dominatrix in the video. At one point, her character sadly recounts her past life as a wicked queen of Egypt, in love with a much younger man and impervious to the suffering of her people. The narrative is at times humorous, sensational and spectacular, but is ultimately grounded in the haze of past memories and the regrets of a past life.[7]
In 2003, Pierson publishedSelf Portrait, a book of photographs which features 15 images of beautiful men, arranged to suggest the arc of a lifetime—beginning with a young boy and progressing to old age with men in various stages of undress; none of the images is of the artist himself.[5]
In 2006, inspired by an earlier series of pencil drawings he did from an old postcard of a woman's face, Pierson produced a suite of twelve large-scale silkscreen paintings, all linear graphics in black ink on diffused, off-white linen. Removed from its original and singular representation in a photograph, the portrayed woman's facade is variously multiplied by hand and then enlarged by the machine-like reproduction of silkscreen.[7]
In a group of what Pierson refers to as "first page drawings", original texts from various female authors, already multiplied by machine to the printed word, are returned to the realm of the singular and handwritten original. Pierson diligently copies the first page of books-penned byBarbara Pym,Jean Rhys,Sister Wendy andMarilyn Monroe, among others-on 11 x 14 inch paper.[7]
Pierson's work is regularly commissioned for magazines and he has undertaken photography projects for several luxury fashion houses.[8] Commissioned by the Italian luxury labelBottega Veneta, he photographed modelsLiya Kebede,Karmen Pedaru and Alexandre Cunha for the men and women's 2012 spring/summer ad campaign alongCoconut Grove, Florida.[9]
For the projectThe Source, artistDoug Aitken filmed a conversation with Pierson, exploring the essence of his creative process.[10]
In 2025, theObama Foundation commissioned Pierson to create a sculpture spelling out “hope”, one ofPresidentBarack Obama's core campaign slogans, with found letters for theObama Presidential Center in Chicago.[11]
Pierson's work is included in the collections of:
Pierson is represented byXavier Hufkens,Thaddaeus Ropac,Regen Projects andLisson Gallery (since 2022).[22]
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