Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is a major exhibition devoted to the work of Barbara Kruger, one of the most significant and visible artists of our time. Spanning four decades, this exhibition is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Kruger’s work in 20 years; it spans her single-channel videos from the 1980s to digital productions of the last two decades, and includes large-scale vinyl room wraps, multichannel video installations, and audio soundscapes throughout LACMA’s campus. 

Image courtesy of LACMA Museum

Image courtesy of LACMA Museum

Spanning four decades, Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You. is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Kruger’s work in 20 years, giving audiences an in-depth look at the career of an artist who has been a critical observer of the ways that images circulate through mass culture since the 1970s. It also provides a glimpse at how her direct and often humorous use of text alongside striking photographs and videos anticipated today’s pithy social media-driven landscape and the ever-accelerating speed at which pictures and words instantaneously flow on screens and throughout our environment.

Image courtesy of LACMA Museum

The exhibition includes vinyl works, full-room installations, single-channel videos, large-scale LED videos, and more. Visitors will be able to experience signature works like Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) (1987/2019), which reframes the artist’s iconic text piece from the late 1980s as a single-channel video, as well as immerse themselves in more recent works like Untitled (Forever) (2017) – which envelops them in direct, confrontational phrasing covering the floor and walls – and Untitled (Selfie) (2021), a text installation on opposing walls (“I Hate Myself and You Love Me For It”; “I Love Myself and You Hate Me For It”) which not only invites selfies but is broadcast live to another part of the museum for others to watch.

Image courtesy of LACMA Museum