STEPHEN PRINA

Prina has significantly shaped contemporary art not only through his own innovative practice but also through his longstanding teaching roles at Art Center College of Design in Pasedena and Harvard University, in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies (VES), influencing a new generation of artists. In 1994, he offered a much-discussed course about filmmaking in the 1980s and focused the class on the actor Keanu Reeves. At the same time, he has had a career as composer and pop musician—releasing over a dozen music albums under his own name and with The Red Krayola.

Early Years

Born in 1954 in Galesburg, Illinois, Stephen Prina grew up in the American Midwest before completing a BFA at Northern Illinois University in 1977, followed by an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1980. His formative years at CalArts placed him among peers such as Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler, and Jim Shaw—an environment that encouraged experimental, cross-disciplinary investigation. Prina’s move to California marked the start of a career defined by wide-ranging media experimentation and collaboration.

Stephen Prina Artworks

Alongside fellow artists such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Mike Kelley, he has built a diverse body of work spanning painting, installation, music, and film, marked by a richly interwoven network of cultural, historical, and artistic references that recur across his projects.

Prina often employs strategies of appropriation and re-contextualisation, as in his long-running series Exquisite Corpse: The Complete Paintings of Manet (1988— ), where he recreates each of over 550 paintings from a Manet catalogue raisonné—not as replicas, but as monochrome works that match only the title and dimensions of the originals, inviting viewers to reconsider the concept of authenticity and archive.

Prina’s installations routinely blend visual art and music, highlighting the interconnectedness of media. For example, in his project at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Modern Movie Pop (2010), Prina presented paintings, soundtracks, and performances together, illustrating his belief that history, sound, and image are always in dialogue. Another notable example is the performance installation featuring a chrome low-rider bicycle atop a grand piano—combining personal narrative, musical performance, and art historical reference, with even a piano bench referencing a composition by fluxus artist George Brecht. Prina’s work is characterised by layers of reference and meaning, from art history to autobiography, and by repeated motifs that surface across exhibitions, fostering a network of associations that remain open to the viewer’s experience of art.

Select Exhibitions

• 2025: A Lick and a Promise, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Prina’s first in-depth museum survey dedicated to his performances, installations, and musical works, including a newly commissioned orchestral piece as a highlight.
• 2023: Solo Exhibition, JUBG, Cologne. This exhibition presented recent works that continue Prina’s investigation of institutional critique and art historical reference.
• 2020/ 2017: English for Foreigners, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City/ Madre, Naples. A major solo exhibition exploring migration, language, and cultural adaptation, building on Prina’s long-term engagement with autobiography and historical reference.
• 2011: Carve Out a Space of Intimacy, Capitain Petzel, Berlin. Centered on interventions in institutional space and the shifting meaning of art objects.
• 2010: Modern Movie Pop, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Investigated connections between cinema, music, and the visual arts through installations and performances.
• 2008: The Second Sentence of Everything I Read is You, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. A major institutional solo showcasing Prina’s nuanced exploration of art history, music, and authorship.

Stephen Prina FAQs

Ocula | 2025