Art21 - Art in the 21st Century
PBS Running
12 Seasons · 44 Episodes · Premiered September 21, 2001
Art21 - Art in the 21st Century is a series that focuses exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists in the U.S. This Peabody Award-winning biennial program allows viewers to observe the artists at work, watch as they transform inspiration into art, and hear how they struggle with both the physical and visual challenges of achieving their visions. Both established and emerging artists are featured.
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Seasons & Episodes
Season 1
4 episodes
E01
Place
Sat, Sep 22 2001 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore the idea of place by questioning commonly held assumptions about land, home and national identity. Featuring artists Richard Serra, Sally Mann, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Pepon Osorio, with an introduction by Laurie Anderson.
E02
Identity
Sat, Sep 29 2001 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists address the idea of identity by questioning commonly held assumptions about stereotypes, self-awareness, portraiture, and what it means to be an artist. Featuring artists Bruce Nauman, Kerry James Marshall, Maya Lin, and Louise Bourgeois, with an introduction by William Wegman and Steve Martin.
E03
Spirituality
Sat, Oct 6 2001 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists address the idea of spirituality by questioning commonly held assumptions about faith, belief, meditation, and religious symbols. Featuring artists Ann Hamilton, John Feodorov, Shahzia Sikander, and James Turrell, with an introduction by Beryl Korot and S. Epatha Merkerson.
E04
Consumption
Sat, Oct 13 2001 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists address the idea of consumption by questioning commonly held assumptions about commerce, mass media, and consumer society. Featuring artists Michael Ray Charles, Matthew Barney, Andrea Zittel, and Mel Chin, with an introduction by Barbara Kruger and John McEnroe.
Season 2
4 episodes
E01
Stories
Wed, Sep 10 2003 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists tell stories in their work, reveal narrative traditions, and record and describe the world around us. Featuring artists Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Do-Ho Suh, and Trenton Doyle Hancock, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and John Waters.
E02
Loss & Desire
Wed, Sep 10 2003 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists express longing, love, and human experience in contemporary work. Featuring artists Collier Schorr, Gabriel Orozco, and Janine Antoni, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Jane Alexander.
E03
Humor
Thu, Sep 11 2003 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists use irony, goofiness, satire, and sarcasm in their work, being funny and critical at the same time. Featuring artists Eleanor Antin, Raymond Pettibon, Elizabeth Murray, and Walton Ford, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Margaret Cho.
E04
Time
Thu, Sep 11 2003 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists evoke and transform time in their work, relating to art of the ancient past, to nature, and to the rhythms of the life. Featuring artists Martin Puryear, Paul Pfeiffer, Vija Celmins, and Tim Hawkinson, with an introduction by Charles Atlas and Merce Cunningham.
Season 3
4 episodes
E01
Power
Sat, Sep 17 2005 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
E02
Memory
Sat, Sep 24 2005 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore how memory functions and how to frame the past in their work. Featuring artists Susan Rothenberg, Mike Kelley, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Josiah McElheny, with an introduction by Isabella Rossellini and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
E03
Structures
Sat, Oct 1 2005 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore how we organize life and the ways in which we capture knowledge and attempt greater understanding. Featuring artists Matthew Ritchie, Fred Wilson, Richard Tuttle, and Roni Horn, with an introduction by Sam Waterson and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
E04
Play
Sat, Oct 8 2005 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Spontaneous and joyful, subversive or amusing, play can take many forms in daily life as well as in contemporary art. Featuring artists Jessica Stockholder, Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Herrera, and Oliver Herring, with an introduction by Grant Hill and an original video artwork by Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler.
Season 4
4 episodes
E01
Romance
Mon, Oct 29 2007 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore the roles that intuition, emotion, fantasy, and escapism play in contemporary art. Featuring artists Laurie Simmons, Lari Pittman, Judy Pfaff, and Pierre Huyghe.
E02
Protest
Mon, Nov 5 2007 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists engage politics, inequality, and the many conflicts that besiege the world today. Featuring artists Nancy Spero, An-My Le, Alfredo Jaar, and Jenny Holzer.
E03
Ecology
Mon, Nov 12 2007 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore how our understanding of the natural world becomes deeply cultural. Featuring artists Ursula von Rydingsvard, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Robert Adams, and Mark Dion.
E04
Paradox
Mon, Nov 19 2007 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Contemporary artists address contradiction, ambiguity, and truth. Featuring artists Mark Bradford, Catherine Sullivan, Robert Ryman, and Allora & Calzadilla.
Season 5
4 episodes
E01
Compassion
Thu, Oct 8 2009 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists explore conscience and reconcile the past and present while exposing injustice and expressing tolerance for others. Featuring artists William Kentridge, Carrie Mae Weems, and Doris Salcedo.
E02
Fantasy
Thu, Oct 15 2009 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists transport us to imaginary worlds and altered states of consciousness with hallucinatory, irreverent, and sublime works. Featuring artists Jeff Koons, Mary Heilmann, Florian Maier-Aichen, and Cao Fei.
E03
Transformation
Thu, Oct 22 2009 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists capture the sensibility of our age by satirizing society and reinventing icons of literature, art history, and popular culture. Featuring artists Yinka Shonibare MBE, Cindy Sherman, and Paul McCarthy.
E04
Systems
Thu, Oct 29 2009 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Artists invent new grammars, systems, and logics in today's supercharged, information-based society. Featuring artists Julie Mehretu, John Baldessari, Kimsooja, and Allan McCollum.
Season 6
4 episodes
E01
Change
Sat, Apr 14 2012 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
How do artists respond to a world in flux? In what ways do artists act as agents of change, and what kinds of aesthetic choices do they make to express it? This episode features artists who bear witness, through their work, to transformation--cultural, material, and aesthetic--and actively engage communities as collaborators and subjects.
E02
Boundaries
Sat, Apr 21 2012 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
This episode features artists who synthesize disparate aesthetic traditions, present taboo subject matter, discover innovative uses of media, and explore the shape-shifting potential of the human figure. Featuring artists David Altmejd, Tabaimo, assume vivd astro focus, and Lynda Benglis.
E03
History
Sat, Apr 28 2012 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
In this episode, artists play with historical events, explore and expose commonly held assumptions about historic ‘truth', and create narratives based on personal experiences. Featuring artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley, and Marina Abramovi?.
E04
Balance
Sat, May 5 2012 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
This episode features artists whose works explore the distinctions between balance and imbalance, and demonstrate that the smallest change in a line, a formal element, or a structure can be a radical proposition. Featuring artists Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold, and Sarah Sze.
Season 7
4 episodes
E01
Investigation
Sat, Oct 25 2014 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
How do artists push beyond what they already know and readily see? Can acts of engagement and exploration be works of art in themselves? In this episode, artists use their practices as tools for personal and intellectual discovery, simultaneously documenting and producing new realities in the process. Featuring artists Thomas Hirschhorn, Leonardo Drew, and Graciela Iturbide.
E02
Secrets
Sat, Nov 1 2014 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
How do artists make the invisible visible? What hidden elements persist in their work? Is it the artist's role to reveal them, or not? In this episode, artists share some of the secrets that are intrinsic to their work. Featuring artists Elliott Hundley, Arlene Shechet, and Trevor Paglen.
E03
Legacy
Sat, Nov 8 2014 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Why do we break with some traditions and perpetuate others? Artists in this episode use life experiences and family heritage to explore new aesthetic terrain. Featuring artists Wolfgang Laib, Tania Bruguera, and Abraham Cruzvillegas.
E04
Fiction
Sat, Nov 15 2014 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
What makes a compelling story? How do artists disrupt everyday reality in the service of revealing subtler truths? This episode features artists who explore the virtues of ambiguity, mix genres, and merge aesthetic disciplines to discern not simply what stories mean, but how and why they come to have meaning.
Season 8
4 episodes
E01
Chicago
Sat, Sep 17 2016 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
How does the city of Chicago inspire the artists who live there? How is the architecture, history, and character of the city interpreted and reflected in the work of Chicago-based artists? Which parts of the city are most moving and motivational? In this episode, artists reveal the ways in which their communities ignite ideas for photographs, sculptures, and drawings, and how those communities are.
E02
Mexico City
Sat, Sep 17 2016 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
In this episode, artists exit their homes and studios to use the growing megalopolis as their canvas. The artists present everyday materials as artworks, mine recognizable images for their poetic potential, and take their art to the streets. Featuring artists Natalia Almada, Minerva Cuevas, Damián Ortega, and Pedro Reyes.
E03
Los Angeles
Sat, Sep 24 2016 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Diana Thater's video installations; Liz Larner's abstract sculptures; Tala Madani, satirical paintings; Edgar Arceneaux examines history through drawing and performance.
E04
Vancouver
Sat, Sep 24 2016 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Liz Magor makes casts of objects; installation artist Stan Douglas, Brian Jungen creates sculptures with consumer goods; photographer Jeff Wall.
Season 9
3 episodes
E01
Berlin
Sat, Sep 22 2018 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Berlin has become a haven for artists from all over the world—a free zone where experimentation, individual expression, and international influences converge. The artists in this hour demonstrate the diversity of practice and sensibilities in the German capital. The "Berlin" episode features Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Olafur Eliasson, Hiwa K, and Susan Philipsz.
E02
Johannesburg
Sat, Sep 22 2018 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Since the dramatic fall of apartheid in 1994, Johannesburg has emerged as the artistic capital of sub-Saharan Africa. Collectively, the artists in this hour use their work to empower marginalized communities, reexamine history, and pursue their visions for South Africa's future. The "Johannesburg" episode features David Goldblatt, Nicholas Hlobo, Zanele Muholi, and Robin Rhode.
E03
San Francisco Bay Area
Sat, Sep 29 2018 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
The San Francisco Bay Area is a magnet for artists who are drawn to its experimental atmosphere, countercultural spirit, and history of innovation. The artists in this hour are united by their steadfastness and persistence in creating. The "San Francisco Bay Area" episode features Creative Growth Art Center, Katy Grannan, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Stephanie Syjuco.
Season 10
3 episodes
E01
London
Sat, Sep 19 2020 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
See how British history and modern upheaval collide in the works of today's London artists.
E02
Beijing
Sat, Sep 26 2020 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Witness the maturing of this unique contemporary-art hub and meet the artists who call it home.
E03
Borderlands
Sat, Oct 3 2020 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Learn how contemporary art can challenge preconceived notions of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Season 11
3 episodes
E01
Everyday Icons
Sat, Apr 8 2023 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Twelve of America's most innovative artists rise to the challenge of our current moment, creating new paintings, sculptures, films, and performances that inspire and heal. Featuring Michelle Obama portraitist Amy Sherald.Â
E02
Bodies of Knowledge
Sat, Jun 24 2023 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
E03
Friends & Strangers
Sat, Oct 21 2023 2:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
Season 12
3 episodes
E01
Between Worlds
Sat, Oct 18 2025 1:00 AM GMT+0000
60 min
As they create paintings, beadwork, photographs and films, four international artists reveal the complex ties between the communities and cultures they move between.
E02
Realms of the Real
60 min
Viewers travel from a banana plantation in Reykjavik, Iceland, to a former Agfa photographic film factory in Berlin to Argentina's "Lithium Triangle" with featured artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ragnar Kjartansson, Candice Lin and Tomás Saraceno. "Realms of the Real" premieres in early 2026.
E03
Human Nature
60 min