The post-conceptual artist talks about his hometown, studying with John Baldessari at California Institute of the Arts, and a missed encounter with John Cage.
Stephen Prina, who was born in 1954 in Galesburg, Illinois, is an artist whose practice has included sculpture, installation, painting, drawing, video and performance since he began exhibiting in the 1980s. Concurrently, he is a musician, particularly known for his involvement with the experimental rock band The Red Krayola and his solo pop album, Push Comes to Love, which was released in 1999.
Prina is renowned for his multilayered and associative approach to art-making, where the starting point for a project is often a pre-existing or historical subject. His eighth show at Petzel Gallery, New York, entitled galesburg, illinois+, is filled with reference and memory, drawing on the artist’s hometown. Music also takes on a foundational role within the exhibition, with songs from Prina’s 13-track conceptual album Ode to Galesburg streaming through the gallery.
The artist is based in Los Angeles and Cambridge, where he is a professor in the department of visual and environmental studies at Harvard University.
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