Barbara Kruger, born in 1945 in Newark, New Jersey, is a contemporary artist. She attended Syracuse University and was interested in many things such as graphic design and poetry. After attending Syracuse University for a year, Kruger attended Parsons School of Design in New York. After a year Kruger went to work at Conde Nast Publications and worked as a beginner designer and was later promoted. She later began to work as a picture editor and then shifted to creating her own photographs. Her artwork would include sequins, feathers and beads to symbolize the feminist recuperation of craft.

Throughout her artwork, Kruger scrutinizes stereotypes and the majority of Kruger's graphic work were black and white photographs in which the captions would be white on red. This is shown in the picture displayed above. In her artwork she criticizes cultural power structures and sexism. In her photographs she includes aggressive text which makes the viewer experience a struggle for control and power. According to Anthony F. Janson, in Kruger's photographs the text and image are not related and the purpose of this is to build up anxiety which would play with the society's fear.

Kruger also created videos and films in which her goal was to display the harsh and gentle aspects of a social life and how people treat each other. In her videos Kruger would have text on the floor and the text would show up as white on red, just like her other artwork. The floor would now have a voice and "the walls can hear you, and the architecture is manipulating the way you speak." By portraying the wall, floor, and architecture in such a way, Kruger shows that "social spaces have their own speaking and representing the world."
Now, Kruger currently lives and works in New York and Los Angeles, California and therefore, travels between the two states.

Work Cited

“Barbara Kruger.” Barbara Kruger - Feminist Artist - The Art History Archive, www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html.

“Barbara Kruger.” Artnet, ArtNet Worldwide Corporation, www.artnet.com/artists/barbara-kruger/.