“Friends and Family a Sequel”

The artist has spent over fifty years exploring how objects achieve public and personal meaning in a world built on mass production, focusing recently on collaborations with small historical society community museums in different parts of the world.

In 2005, he designed “The Shapes Project,” a system to produce “a completely unique form for every person on the planet, without repetition.” His first solo exhibition was in 1971, and his first New York exhibition was at the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1972. He moved to New York in 1975, and in the late 1970s he became especially known for his series, “Surrogate Paintings.”

McCollum has had over 100 solo exhibitions, including retrospectives at the Musée d'Art Moderne, Villeneuve d'Ascq, Lille, France (1998); the Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany (1995–96); the Serpentine Gallery, London (1990); the Rooseum Centre for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden (1990); IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia, Spain (1990); Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (1989), and Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany (1988). He has produced public art projects in the United States and Europe, and his works are in over ninety art museum collections worldwide.

A number of notable writers have published on Allan McCollum's work, including Rhea Anastas, Nicolas Bourriaud, Martha Buskirk, Lynne Cooke, Hal Foster, Andrea Fraser, Suzi Gablik, Claude Gintz, Rosalind Krauss, Thomas Lawson, MaryJo Marks, Johannes Meinhardt, John Miller, Helen Molesworth, Lars Nittve, Craig Owens, Catherine Quéloz, and Anne Rorimer. McCollum has occasionally interviewed and written essays on other artists for books and catalogues, including Matt Mullican, Allen Ruppersberg, Andrea Zittel, and Harrell Fletcher.