This piece is from an upcoming exhibition Archeology in Reverse at the Mills College Art Museum opening in September of 2018.

Catherine Wagner works with elements of contemporary society and transforms them into conceptual images that investigate culture. For over thirty years she has been a keen observer of the built environment, examining institutions of learning and knowledge. Wagner’s process involves the investigation of what art critic David Bonetti calls "the systems people create, our love of order, our ambition to shape the world, the value we place on knowledge, and the tokens we display to express ourselves."

Wagner is the recipient of major awards, including the Rome Prize (2013-2014), a Guggenheim Fellowship, NEA Fellowships, among others. In 2001 Ms. Wagner was named one of Time Magazine’s Fine Arts Innovators of the Year. Her work is represented in major collections such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.