Michael Rakowitz
Artist
Tuesday, November 8, 2007

Chicago-based artist Rakowitz first gained attention for his project paraSITE, an ongoing series in which he builds inflatable shelters for the homeless. Many of his works take an interventionist approach to public space in order to address deep-rooted social issues. His most recent large-scale projects are The invisible enemy should not exist, an attempt to reconstruct the archeological artifacts looted from the National Museum of Iraq in the aftermath of the American invasion in April 2003; and Return, where Rakowitz re-opened Davisons & Co., based on the import/export business his family operated in Baghdad until 1946, in Brooklyn, NY.

Michael Rakowitz received his B.F.A. from SUNY Purchase in Purchase, NY, and his M.F.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. His solo exhibitions include a Percent for Art Program Commission through the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York, NY, and Lombard-Freid Projects in New York. He is an Associate Professor in Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.