Preview

Steve McQueen

June 2025

Photo: Randy Gibson, Courtesy Dia Art Foundation


Schaulager will present a new work in June 2025 by renowned artist and film director Steve McQueen, who last presented a widely acclaimed, comprehensive exhibition Steve McQueen – a “City of Cinemas” – in 2013.

The newly commissioned work will be realized in collaboration with the Dia Art Foundation in New York and will first be shown at the Dia Beacon in spring 2024. Building on previous works, the project explores how light, color, and sound affect our physical and mental perception of space and time. To this end, McQueen transforms the large exhibition space at the Dia Beacon into an immersive installation in which he exploits the full spectrum of visible light in conjunction with a sound component that responds to the space. At Schaulager, McQueen will adapt the installation to the institution's spatial conditions.

In a career spanning over 30 years, Steve McQueen has critically engaged with themes such as history and race, through film, photography, and installation. Using projected light and sound, much like a sculptor or a painter, McQueen creates environments that resonate on multiple levels and go beyond the conventional frame of cinema. Whether shown on sleek, large screens or small monitors, his work — in particular the filmic, which employs nonlinear storytelling — firmly embeds viewers in the inescapable present while simultaneously destabilizing them.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog, documenting the development of the work alongside essays and illustrations. The catalogue is co-published by both institutions alike.

Steve McQueen is co-commissioned by Dia Art Foundation and Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager Basel

diaart.org

Steve McQueen was born in London in 1969. Surveys of his work have been held at the Art Institute of Chicago (2012); Schaulager, Münchenstein (2013); Tate Modern, London (2020); and Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2022). Recent solo presentations include those at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); the Art Institute of Chicago (2017); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017); Pérez Art Museum, Miami (2017); the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2017); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2017–2018); Tate Britain, London (2019–21); and Serpentine Gallery, London (2023). McQueen has participated in Documenta X (1997) and XI (2002); as well as in the Venice Biennale (2003, 2007, 2013, and 2015), representing Great Britain in 2009. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Turner Prize (1999); the W. E. B. Du Bois Medal, Harvard University (2014); and the Johannes Vermeer Award (2016). He was declared Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2002, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011, and Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2020.

McQueen directed the feature films Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2014), and Widows (2018); as well as the series Small Axe (2020), an anthology of five films shown on BBC and Amazon; and Uprising (2021), a three-part documentary series made in collaboration with James Rogan for BBC. His latest documentary Occupied City (2023) is based on the book Atlas of an Occupied City, Amsterdam 1940–56 by Bianca Stigter. He is working on the historical film project Blitz. McQueen won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes Film Festival for Hunger in 2008, and an Oscar for Best Motion Picture for 12 Years a Slave in 2014.

McQueen lives in Amsterdam and London.