Allan McCollum

Allan McCollum is an American artist born in 1944 in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for his diverse and prolific body of work that includes sculpture, painting, photography, and installation art.

McCollum’s art often addresses themes related to the concept of uniqueness and the individual in a mass society. McCollum’s breakthrough came in the 1970s with his Surrogate Paintings, a series of monochromatic, mass-produced canvases that were meant to be viewed as stand-ins for unique, hand-painted works. This series challenged the notion of the one-of-a-kind artwork, which had been a fundamental part of the art world for centuries. Throughout his career, McCollum has continued to question and subvert the traditional art world values, exploring themes such as the nature of authorship, the meaning of objects, and the role of the artist in contemporary society. In his Plaster Surrogates series, McCollum creates hundreds of identical, cast-plaster shapes, each of which is painted a different color, then displayed en masse to create a vast, colorful installation. 

McCollum’s work has been exhibited in numerous institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. His art can also be found in several public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In addition to his art practice, McCollum has also been an influential figure in the world of art education. He has taught at several institutions, including the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the School of Visual Arts in New York.