Haim Steinbach

Haim Steinbach (b. Israel, 1944) is an influential exponent of art based on already existing objects. Emigrating and settling in New York in 1957, Steinbach's art has been focused on the selection and arrangement of found, made and everyday objects since the late 70's.

In order to enhance their interplay and resonance with the viewer, Steinbach builds arrays of plinths and structures that serve as framing devices, on and into which his carefully selected objects are placed.

The objects Steinbach uses range from the natural to the ordinary, the artistic to the ethnographic. Exploring the psychological, aesthetic, cultural and ritualistic aspects of objects as well as their context, Steinbach radically redefines the status of the object in art.

Steinbach also collects words, phrases and statements that he ‘sees as objects’. For his Limited Edition, he has produced a work that uses an existing phrase found in advertising, silkscreened over patterned wallpaper. Allowing the words and image, now removed from their original context, to be seen anew, Steinbach creates a playful tension between the two elements with an elegant simplicity of means.

Steinbach’s work is in numerous museum collections including the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, as well as the Stedelijk Museum, Castello di Rivoli, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and the Tate Modern. He exhibited at Documenta 9 (1992), and his work has also been included in the Venice Biennale (1993, 1997, and 2001). Steinbach lives and works in Brooklyn and San Diego.