Conceptual artist Agnes Denes (b.1931, Budapest, Hungary) is a pioneer of ecological and land art. Where many land artists emphasized monumentality and dominance over nature, Denes fuses environmental science with monumental public action, suggesting that art could provoke policy changes. She is one of the earliest artists to address ecological degradation, sustainability, food scarcity, and land use and resource mismanagement. As in her iconic 1982 Public Art Fund project, Wheatfield—A Confrontation, Denes choses symbolically charged sites, especially urban or economically valuable land to expose the contradictions of urban wealth and global hunger. This work is regarded as a cornerstone of environmentally and socially engaged art.
Denes has presented solo exhibitions at The Shed, New York City (2019); Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY (2015); Chelsea Museum, New York City (2004); Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (1992); Institute of Contemporary Art, London (1979); and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1974).
Notable group exhibitions include Shifting Landscapes, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (2024); Extreme Tension: Art Between Politics and Society, 1945–2000, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2023); Dear Earth: Art in a Time of Crisis, The Hayward Gallery, London (2023); Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, LACMA, Los Angeles (2023); the 59th Venice Biennale, Italy (2022); Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965–2018, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City (2018); Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Ages, 1959–1989, The Museum of Modern Art, New York City (2017); Beyond Earth Art: Contemporary Artists and the Environment, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2014); and Radical Nature: Art & Architecture for a Changing Planet, 1969–2009, Barbican Art Gallery, London (2009). She has received numerous awards, including four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; Anonymous Was A Woman (2007); and Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (1998). In addition to her groundbreaking 1982 commission from Public Art Fund, Denes has also created Masterplan—Niuewe Hollandse Waterlinie, the Netherlands (2000); A Forest for Australia, Melbourne (1998); Tree Mountain—A Living Time Capsule, Ylöjärvi, Finland (1992–1996); and Introspection I-Evolution, Harold Washington Library, Chicago (1992–1992) Denes’ work is in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago; IL; The Metropolitan Musuem of Art, New York City; The Museum of Modern Art, New York City; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; and Whitney Musuem of American Art, New York City. Denes lives and works in New York City.
(as of 2026)
