EXIT (large), 2014, is an important example of the artist’s iconic text works, in which Doug Aitken reclaims the commercial landscape of signage in order to underscore the cultural potency of language. The artist has described his sculptural text pieces as possessing a ‘toughness’ that echoes the abbreviated nature of much contemporary communication. At the same time, these works move beyond language, breaking down into abstraction – in the case of Exit (large) its mirrored surface creating endless permutations of light and reflection that speak to aesthetic, psychological and conceptual points of departure.

Defying definitions of genre, Doug Aitken explores every medium, from film and installations to architectural interventions. Aitken’s Sleepwalkers exhibition at MoMA in 2007 transformed an entire block of Manhattan as he covered the museum’s exterior walls with projections. A major survey of the artist’s work opened at MOCA Los Angeles in 2016, before traveling to The Modern, Fort Worth. His Station to Station project took over the Barbican Centre in London for 30 days in the summer of 2015, and in 2019, the Faurschou Foundation in Beijing presented a major solo exhibition by the artist. Aitken’s work has been featured in numerous other institutions including the Whitney, the Vienna Secession, the Serpentine, and the Pompidou. He participated in both the 1997 and 2000 Whitney Biennials, and earned the International Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1999.