An interdisciplinary artist and writer, much of Frances Stark’s practice focuses on language. Through creative compositions that combine text and imagery, Stark explores everything from the mundane to the absurd, including writing, procrastination, failure, success, emotions, relationships, and more. Sharply political—and often with a humorous edge—her work overflows with references to art, literature, and popular culture in ways both provocative and self-reflexive. In the large-scale panels that comprise her series Ian F. Svenonius’s “Censorship Now” for the 2017 Whitney Biennial, Stark paints annotated pages of an ambiguously satirical manifesto calling for corporations and governments to seize power by censoring the arts. Reflecting incisively on similar themes, Stark noted, “Art is the one thing that you can do that you can be totally complicit in the problem and still critique the problem.”

–From the Glenstone Field Guide