The Fondation Beyeler to premiere Little Room, a new virtual reality (VR) installation by American artist Jordan Wolfson (*1980). This immersive work, on display for the first time at the Fondation Beyeler, invites visitors to step into an experimental environment where they play a central role in the unfolding experience.
Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors are paired either with a companion of their choice or with a
stranger, and after an individual 3D full-body scan, they are transported into a virtual space, within which, each participant sees themselves through the body of the other, leading to increasingly strange and disorienting physical and spatial distortions.
Little Room delves into the complex intersection of real, virtual, and imaginary realms. Wolfson’s work
examines the darker aspects of the human experience while raising profound existential questions about
consciousness, identity, and physical and intellectual negation. With Little Room the artist pushes the
potential of VR to create a unique encounter that goes beyond conventional understandings of the medium.
“The Fondation Beyeler is delighted to premiere Little Room, a powerful testament to Jordan Wolfson’s
said Sam Keller, Director Fondation Beyeler.
visionary practice and relentless pursuit of innovation at the intersection of art, technology, and the
complex moral landscape of today’s world,”
Jordan Wolfson is known for his thought-provoking and unsettling works across various media. While he
began as a video artist, his latest works span animatronics, robotics, virtual reality, holography, digital
animation, and innovative wall-based pieces. Pulling intuitively from the world of advertising, the internet,
and the technology industry, he produces ambitious and enigmatic narratives that frequently revolve
around a series of invented, animated characters.
As part of a generation that redefined artistic possibilities through emerging digital media, Wolfson probes difficult, often controversial topics and themes that underlie American culture and contemporary society, offering a raw and immersive exploration of human vulnerabilities. His art challenges and disorients, often interrogating how we process images and information, and how technologies shape the way we think and perceive the world. Jordan Wolfson studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Jordan Wolfson: Little Room 25th May – 3rd August 2025 Fondation Beyeler
The show is organized by Fondation Beyeler in partnership with LUMA Foundation and supported by the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, the George Economou Collection, the AMA Collection as well as Sadie Coles HQ, Gagosian and David Zwirner.
About
Jordan Wolfson (b. 1980) is known for his thought-provoking works in a wide range of media, including video, sculpture, installation, photography, and performance. Pulling intuitively from the world of advertising, the internet, and the technology industry, he produces ambitious and enigmatic narratives that frequently revolve around a series of invented, animated characters. Through his art, Wolfson probes difficult, often controversial topics and themes that underlie American culture and contemporary society.
Wolfson was born in New York. In 2003 he received his BFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. The artist joined David Zwirner in 2013 and has presented solo exhibitions of his work at the gallery in New York in 2014, 2016, and 2018. In 2020, ARTISTS FRIENDS RACISTS marked Wolfson’s fourth solo exhibition with David Zwirner. A concurrent installation of the works was on view at Sadie Coles HQ, London.
Wolfson’s first solo exhibition in Australia opened in December 2023 at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, with the world premiere of his new work Body Sculpture.
Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work were presented in 2022 at the Brant Foundation, New York; and Kunsthaus Bregenz. In 2018, the inaugural London presentation of Jordan Wolfson’s Colored sculpture took place in the Tanks at Tate Modern. The work features a sculptural figure of a boy suspended by chains and references the racism of the characters Huck Finn and Howdy Doody, as well as the Mad magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman. Also in 2018, The Broad in Los Angeles presented Wolfson’s (Female Figure) and the Zabludowicz Collection in London presented 360: Jordan Wolfson. In 2016, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam hosted a two-part survey of the artist’s work, MANIC/LOVE/TRUTH/LOVE. Jordan Wolfson: Ecce Homo/le Poseur, the most comprehensive survey of his work to date, was organized by the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent and presented in 2013.
Other institutions that have hosted solo presentations of Wolfson’s work include the Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2019); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2018); Pond Society, New Century Art Foundation, Shanghai (2017); Cleveland Museum of Art (2015); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); REDCAT, Los Angeles (2012); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2011); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2009); Swiss Institute of Contemporary Art, New York (2008); Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy (2007); and the Kunsthalle Zürich (2004). In 2014 a selection of Wolfson’s video work was shown at the McLellan Galleries in Glasgow as part of the 6th Glasgow International.
Work by Wolfson is held in public collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; The Broad, Los Angeles; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy; Fonds national d’art contemporain (FNAC), France; LUMA Foundation, Zurich; Magasin III Museum and Foundation for Contemporary Art, Stockholm; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent; Tate, United Kingdom; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
The Fondation Beyeler in Riehen near Basel is internationally renowned for its high-calibre exhibitions, its major collection of modern and contemporary art, as well as its ambitious schedule of events. The museum building was designed by Renzo Piano in the idyllic setting of a park with venerable trees and water lily ponds.
It boasts a unique location in the heart of a local recreation area, looking out onto fields, pastures and
vineyards close to the foothills of the Black Forest. In collaboration with Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the Fondation Beyeler is constructing a new museum building in the adjoining park, thus further enhancing the harmonious interplay of art, architecture and nature.
