jennifer allora & guillermo calzadilla
Allora: 1974, Philadelphia, United States. Calzadilla: 1971, Havana, Cuba.
Over the past three decades, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla have developed an expansive and experimental body of work. Through sculpture, performance, video, sound and photography in varying combinations, they evoke contemporary geopolitics, cultural artifacts and the ‘deep time’ of archaeological history. They give meaning to their artistic research by delving into and questioning the structural and narrative conventions of storytelling and the potential of language and materiality. Allora & Calzadilla studied the cooperative and catalytic nature of impromptu collective drawing with ephemeral materials, at the Lima biennial in Peru (Chalk [Lima], 1998–2002); the imprints of colonial, nationalist, and military violence on the diverse populations and landscapes of Vieques, Puerto Rico (Landmark, 2001–2002); and the resonance of playing, warping, and combining music from various moments in history (Clamor, 2006; Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano, 2008; and Raptor’s Rapture, 2012). Their projects challenge viewers to build meaning through a literal, metaphorical, evidential and political reading of the work, and also to participate, as an experience that heightens aesthetic sensibility.
Jennifer Allora received her BA from the University of Richmond in Virginia (1996) and MS from MIT- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003); Guillermo Calzadilla completed his BFA from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas in Puerto Rico (1996) and MFA from Bard College in New York (2001). Collaborating since 1995, Allora & Calzadilla have been the recipients of numerous grants and awards, including the Scientific Merit Award for Science and the Audience Award at the 10th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival (2017); the DAAD Berlin Artists-in-Residence Programme (2008); the Gwangju Biennial Prize (2004); Penny McCall Foundation Grant (2003); Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (2002); and Cintas Fellowship (2000). In 2006 they were finalists for both the Hugo Boss Prize and the Nam June Paik Award.
Allora & Calzadilla live and work in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
puerto rican light (cueva vientos), 2015
dan flavin, puerto rican light (to jeannie blake), 1965
red, pink, and yellow fluorescent lights, 96 inches high; solar-powered batteries and inverter.
installation view in: el convento natural protected area, guayanilla-peñuelas, puerto rico
commissioned by dia art foundation, new york
entelechy, 2020
coal, vocalists
14 x 31 x 48 ft
installation view of specters of noon at menil collection, houston
penumbra”, 2020; computer generated shadow animation, synch with sun-path in real time, sound
installation view of allora & calzadilla: specters of noon, menil collection, houston
graft, 2019
recycled polyvinyl chloride and paint
dimensions variable
installation view of allora & calzadilla: specters of noon, menil collection, 2020-2021
cadastre (meter number 18257262, consumption charge 36.9kWh x $0.02564, rider FCA-fuel charge adjusted 36.9 kWh x $0.053323, rider PPCA-Purchase power charge adjusted 36.9kWh x $0.016752, rider CILTA-Municipalities adjusted 36.9kWh x $0.002376, rider SUBA subsidies $1.084), 2019
iron filings on linen
6 x 70 ft
installation view of specters of noon, menil collection, houston
blackout, 2020
power transformer, bronze, electricity, vocalists
306.1 × 217.2 × 200 cm
manifest, 2020
bat and bird guano
side A: 449.6 × 208.3 × 99.1 cm, side B: 449.6 × 208.3 × 99.1 cm
installation view of allora & calzadilla: specters of noon, menil collection, 2020-2021
the great silence, 2014
three-channel hd video, color, sound
stop, repair, prepare: variations on "ode to joy" for a prepared piano, 2008
prepared bechstein piano, pianist (marcin wieczorek depicted in photo)
piano: 40 x 67 x 84 in
installation view in neue nationalgalerie, berlin 2022
A selection of their most notable projects and recent solo exhibitions include: Graft (Phantom Tree), Pinacoteca Agnelli, La Pista 500, Turin, Italy (2025); El gran silencio, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain (2025); Lo que queda del día, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (two-person exhibition with Rirkrit Tiravanija) (2025); Antilia, Centre Pompidou Metz, France (2024); KLIMA, Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao, Spain (2024); Entelechy, Serralves Foundation–Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugal (2023); Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2022); Specters of Noon, Menil Collection, Houston, Texas (2021); James Rosenquist and Allora & Calzadilla, Tate Modern, London (two-person exhibition) (2019); Chalk, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2019); Unspecified Promise, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2017); Allora & Calzadilla: Echo to Artifact, Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA), Edmonton, Canada (2016); Puerto Rican Light (Cueva Vientos), a Dia Art Foundation commission in the Southern Coast of Puerto Rico (2015); Intervals, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Pennsylvania (2014); Fault Lines, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi at the Palazzo Cusani, Milan (2013); Gloria, US Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2010); Allora & Calzadilla, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo, Norway (2009); Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for a Prepared Piano, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2008); Never Mind That Noise You Heard, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2008); Clamor, Serpentine Galleries, London (2007); Allora & Calzadilla, Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland (2007); Wake Up, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2007); Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, Belgium (2006); Land Mark, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006), among others.
installation view graft (phantom tree), 2025 at pinacoteca agnelli, torino, 2025. photo: sebastiano pellion di persano
Group exhibitions include: The New Vision: Monet and the Contemporary Gaze, Pola Museum of Art, Hakone, Japan (2026); Bloom up! The Language of Flowers, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2026); Palomar (Part 1), The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2026); ECHO DELAY REVERB: Art américain, pensées francophones, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2025); MINEBANE! Contemporary Art – The Taguchi Art Collection, Akita Museum of Art and Akita Senshu Museum of Art, Japan (2025); From Ukraine: Dare to Dream, organized by PinchukArtCentre, Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Venice (2024); Surrealism and Us: Caribbean and African Diasporic Artists since 1940, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2024); Fuori tutto, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (2023); Before Tomorrow – Astrup Fearnley Museet 30 Years, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (2023); Futuros abundantes en tiempos convulsos, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía (C3A), Córdoba, Spain (2022); Surrounds: 11 Installations, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2019); Préhistoire, une énigme moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); Travelers: Stepping into the Unknown, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan (2018); Reenacting History_Collective Actions and Everyday Gestures, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Gwacheon, South Korea (2017); Home—So Different, So Appealing: Art from the Americas since 1957, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) (2017); Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2016); Cámara de maravillas, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM), Colombia (2016); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); traveled to Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2015); and South London Gallery (2016); Fourth Plinth: Contemporary Monument, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London (2012); 11 Rooms, as part of Manchester International Festival, Manchester Art Gallery, United Kingdom (2011); Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Centre, London (2008); Greenwashing. Ambiente: Pericoli, Promesse e Perplessità, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2008); All About Laughter: Humor in Contemporary Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2007); Cinq milliards d’années, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2006); La Force de l’art, Grand Palais, Paris (2006); Common Wealth, Tate Modern, London (2003); S-Files, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2000), among others.
Allora & Calzadilla have also participated in various international biennials, notably: Does the flower hear the bee?, 15th Shanghai Biennale, China (2025); pure intention, Singapore Biennale 2025 (2025); ALOHA NŌ, Hawaiʻi Triennial 2025 (2025); Public Matter, Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, United Arab Emirates (2024); rīvus, 23rd Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2022); INTERMINGLING FLUX, Guangzhou Image Triennial 2021, China (2021); OpenART, Örebro, Sweden (2019); Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13, United Arab Emirates (2017); All the World’s Futures, 56th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2015); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2014); Se o clima for favorável, 9ª Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2013); Interruption, 30th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia (2013); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012); Há sempre um copo de mar para um homem navegar, 29ª Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2010); Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions, 7th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2008); Revolutions – Forms That Turn, 16th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2008); 00s – L’histoire d’une décennie qui n’est pas encore nommée, 9e Biennale de Lyon, France (2007); Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary: Optimism in the Age of Global War, 10. İstanbul Bienali (2007); Still Life: Art, Ecology and the Politics of Change, Sharjah Biennial 8, United Arab Emirates (2007); Day for Night, Whitney Biennial 2006, New York (2006); BEYOND: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization, 2nd Guangzhou Triennial, China (2005); Always a Little Further, 51st International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2005); Dialectics of Hope, 1st Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005); La 6e Biennale de l’Art africain contemporain, DAK’ART, Dakar, Senegal (2004); III Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima, Peru (2002); Uno más cerca del otro, 7 Bienal de La Habana (2000); 24ª Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (1998), among others.
neue nationalgalerie
The Menil Collection presents a major exhibition of seven sculptural works by the artists Allora & Calzadilla that revolve around this concept, serving as a manifestation of noon’s hold over humankind and as a metaphor for the uncertainties defining our time.
