Biography

MICHELLE GRABNER

Born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (1962)
Lives and works in Milwaukee, WI; Chicago, IL; and Waupaca County, WI

Michelle Grabner is a Wisconsin-based artist, writer, and curator. She co-curated the 2014 Whitney Biennial and was the Artistic Director for the inaugural 2018 FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art. Her practice spans a variety of media including drawing, painting, and sculpture, and finds a creative center in operating across platforms and towards community. Her work has been the subject of several national museum surveys. She is presently represented by James Cohan, New York and Green Gallery, Milwaukee, among others.

Grabner is the Crown Family Professor of Art and the Senior Chair of the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. She has also held teaching appointments at The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cranbrook Academy of Art; Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts—Bard College; Yale University School of Art; and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.

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    FELLOWSHIPS / AWARDS

    2024 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters Fellow
    2021 Guggenheim Fellowship
    2019 National Academician, National Academy of Design
    Lifetime Distinguished Artist, Union League Club of Chicago

    PUBLIC COMMISSIONS

    2020 Art Preserve, John Michel Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
    2019 Columbus Public Library, Dublin Branch, Columbus, OH
    2018 Sculpture Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI

    PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

    Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
    Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
    Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
    MUDAM – Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg
    Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH
    Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
    Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
    Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
    Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA
    RISD Museum of Art, Providence, RI
    Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE
    Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN
    Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA
    Wellin Museum of Art – Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
    Bates Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME
    The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI
    Art Omi, Ghent, NY
    ICA Boston, Boston, MA
    The Art Preserve, Sheboygan, WI
    Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend, WI
    Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
    Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI
    Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
    Sculpture Milwaukee Legacy Collection, Milwaukee WI