DAVID HARTT Canadian, b. 1967

David Hartt creates sensitive and concise portraits of contemporary societies, exploring how historic ideas and ideals persist or transform over time. His art is based on extensive historical research, connecting the past to the present through themes of race, culture, identity, and migration. For him, “place” is a way to investigate community, narrative, ideologies, and the intersection of private and public life. The subjects and stories of his oeuvre are presented through many media, including video, photography, architecture, music, and sculpture. For many years, Hartt has utilized photography to produce monumental tapestries of great visual and surface complexity. His truly unique sense of photography allows him to deftly investigate social and cultural situations and create site-specific installations that draw from the idiosyncrasies and histories of their locations. Hartt’s juxtapositions of 19th- and 20th- century environments question what it means to live on our planet and share a common history.

David Hartt has had solo exhibitions at the Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY; Cincinnati Art Museum, OH; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles;  Glass House, New Canaan, CT; Art Institute of Chicago;  Graham Foundation, Chicago;  Art Institute of Chicago; LAXART, Los Angeles; and Or Gallery, Vancouver. His work is in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Jewish Museum, New York; The Studio Museum in  Harlem, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Cincinnati Art Museum, OH; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA; The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Hartt lives and works in Philadelphia.