Banks Violette

Born in 1973 in Ithaca, New York. He earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1998 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2000. Before art school he worked as a tattoo artist and designed flyers for punk and hardcore bands. His sculptures, drawings, and installations draw on the iconography of heavy metal and black metal, filtered through the formal languages of Minimalism and Post-Minimalism. Recurring elements include fluorescent lighting, architectural ruins, and destroyed instruments, engaging themes of violence, death, and pathological behavior. Solo exhibitions include shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.