Wasco, California, USA, 1945. Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Suzanne Lacy is internationally renowned as a pioneer in the field of socially engaged and public art. Her installations, videos, and performances have dealt with a multitude of social issues including violence, rural and urban poverty, incarceration, labor, and aging. Working within traditions of fine art performance and community organizing, Lacy has realized large-scale projects in London, New York, Medellin, Los Angeles, Quito and Madrid. Her work has been reviewed in The Village Voice, Frieze Magazine, Artforum, L.A. Times, New York Times, Art in America, and The Guardian. She has exhibited at Tate Modern, The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum, the New Museum, and The Bilbao Museum in Spain. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Henry Moore Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Also known for her writing and academic career, Lacy edited Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art, and is author of Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007. She is currently a professor at the Roski School of Art at the University of Southern California.