Dan Graham is one of the truly pioneering figures of the contemporary period. Possessed of deep humor and critical intelligence, his practice has been central to the development of art since the 1960s—from the rise of Minimalism, Conceptual art, and video and performance art, to explorations of architecture and the public sphere, to collaborations with musicians and the culture of rock and roll. This exhibition will trace the evolution of Graham’s work across each of its major stages, while asserting the motifs and concerns that underlie his entire oeuvre: most notably, the changing relationship of individual to society as filtered through American mass media and architecture at the end of the 20th century.

Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, with the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Dan Graham: Beyond is the first comprehensive survey of Graham’s career to be mounted by a North American museum and will examine his entire body of work in a focused selection of photographs, film and video, architectural models, indoor and outdoor pavilions, conceptual projects for magazine pages, drawings and prints, and writings. The exhibition comes to the Walker following presentations at MOCA (February 15 - May 25, 2009) and the Whitney Museum of American Art (June 25 - October 2009).

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated scholarly catalogue. The book will include major essays by exhibition co-curators Chrissie Iles (Whitney) and Bennett Simpson (MOCA) and renowned scholar Beatriz Colomina; shorter essays by Rhea Anastas, Mark Francis, Alexandra Midal, Philippe Vergne, and Mark Von Schlegell; interviews with artist Rodney Graham and musician Kim Gordon; and a special section of the artist’s own writings.