b. 1968, New York

Born in New York on April 5, 1968, John Pilson received a B.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1991 and an M.F.A. from Yale University in 1993. He began his career as a photographer of portraits set against bland corporate backgrounds. His work was first exhibited in the 1994 group show Building, Dwelling, Thinking at the Lowinsky Gallery in New York. Pilson's transition to multichannel video installations in 2000 resulted in short films that use these corporate environments as backdrops for men in suits to behave absurdly or humorously, to misuse the space and thereby to introduce into it creativity and individuality. That year, he participated in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's artist-in-residence program and produced the video Above the Grid. A meditation on the hidden unconscious of the office environment, set in the World Trade Center, Above the Grid was included in the exhibition Greater New York at P.S. 1 in New York that same year.

Pilson has had solo exhibitions at Nicole Klagsburn Gallery in New York (2001 and 2003), Galleria Raucci/Santamaria in Naples (2001), and Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam (2002). His work has appeared in the group exhibitions Open Ends: Minimalism [more] and After at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2000), Venice Biennale (2001), Moving Pictures at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (2002), and The Moderns at Castello di Rivoli in Rivoli, Italy (2003). Pilson has received the special prize for young artists at the Venice Biennale (2001), the Penny McCall Foundation Award (2001), and the Bâloise Art Prize at Art Basel 33 (2002). Since 2002, he has taught at Bard College, the New York School of Visual Arts, and Yale University. He lives and works in New York.