Dan Wolgers (1955-) Sweden

Painter and sculptor Dan Wolgers studied at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm from 1980 to 1985. Wolgers debuted in 1984 and in 1989 he participated as an exhibiting artist at the Venice Biennale. Wolgers was one of the most prominent conceptual artists in the 1990s and emerged in this period as an artistic provocateur in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp. In 1993 Wolgers took part in the exhibition “Se människan” (See humanity) at Liljevalchs, where his sole contribution was his name plate in the exhibition room. He sold two of the art gallery’s benches that were depicted in the catalog under Wolgers’ works at an auction before the vernissage. Wolgers was reported for embezzlement and sentenced to pay a fine. Wolgers signed the judgment and the envelope in which it was delivered and sold them for SEK 20,000. In 1992, Wolgers was commissioned to design the cover of the Stockholm City telephone directory, but instead of putting a picture on the front page he wrote his own name and number. This catalog is now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.