Margia Kramer

• Name — Margia Kramer • Born — 1939 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York City, NY • Known for — Documentary art, video installations, multi-media, videos, artist's books focused on the Freedom of Information Act and declassified government documents

Margia Kramer is an American documentary visual artist, writer and activist living in New York. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kramer recontextualized primary texts in a series of pioneering, interdisciplinary multi-media installations, videotapes, self-published books, and writings that focused on feminist, civil rights, civil liberties, censorship, and surveillance issues. Her works have been widely exhibited, including over 15 one-person shows, and over 40 group exhibitions at (1979); the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1980); the Museum of Modern Art (1981); the Whitney Museum of American Art (1984); Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE, 1987); the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (1988); the List Visual Arts Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989); San Francisco Artspace (1989); P.S. 1 (1992); The Institute for Contemporary Art (1993); the Dia Art Foundation (1993); the American Film Institute Video Festivals; and at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces in the U.S. and abroad. Kramer's videos and installation works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, New York Public Library, and in the private collection of Albert and Vera List, among other private and public collections. In the 1970s and 1980s, using the United States' Freedom of Information Act (1967), Kramer sourced and requested, from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), specific documents and dossiers. Kramer presented these original FBI and CIA documents to the public in her art works, exactly as they were released to her, including redactions, and unchanged in text and format. To underscore the inherent repressiveness of the official government documents' deletions and redactions, Kramer's creative process included enlarging or reducing their scale, shifting their positive/negative ratios (documents were made into negatives and enlarged), and changing the materials upon which they were printed from paper to transparent film. Kramer transformed the hieratic, primary materials into installations of giant negative photostats on transparent film that were suspended on threads from ceilings to cast shadows on surrounding walls. The large scale, hanging black rectangles and trenchant white to black positive/negative forms where redactions and texts became transparent, combined to create a chilling but compelling atmosphere that was simultaneously oppressive and informative. By making art that highlighted the specific contents of the documents she received, Kramer was able to demonstrate their undercover strategies, as well as their negative emotional and material impact on the lives of United States citizens protected by the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights. These works centered on issues around feminism, censorship, civil liberties, and civil rights, all in the context of government surveillance. In particular, Kramer made a series of videos, documentary books, and installations on subjects of state counterintelligence programs ("cointelpro") including the actress Jean Seberg, and the artist, filmmaker, and impresario/provocateur Andy Warhol.

Kramer was among the founding members (along with Lucy Lippard) of Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D), and was a member of the editorial board of its magazine, Upfront, to which she contributed two articles. PAD/D's archive is now housed in the library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

• 1988 "Taking the Fifth" (1/2" 10 min.). Margia Kramer comments on footage from Oliver North's testimony during the Iran Contra Hearings (1987), contrasted with witness testimony during the Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954). Also, contains comments by Edward R. Murrow. This tape was part of Kramer's installation, "Unknown Secrets," a traveling exhibition about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that toured museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout USA from 1988-1990 • 1989 "Looking at Militarism: Two Interviews "(1/2" 60 min.) Margia Kramer's interviews with activist Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT and peace activist Prof. Vera Kistiakowsky of MIT, part of Kramer's 1989 multi-media installation "Looking at Militarism" at MIT • 1985 "Freedom of Information Tape 3; The Guerrilla Manual for the Contras in Nicaragua" (3/4" 4 min.) Margia Kramer turns the pages and reads from a copy of the original manual distributed by the United States government in 1984 • 1984 "Progress (Memory) A Video Installation" (3/4" 5 min.) Margia Kramer videotapes, with voice-over, part of Kramer's 1984 video installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art • 1983 "Freedom of Information Tape 2: Progress and Access" (3/4" 36 min.) Margia Kramer interviews several internet pioneers who are developing the World Wide Web. Includes an interview with the 1973 Noble Laureate in Economics, Wassily Leontief, Director of NYU's Institute for Economic Analysis, about automation and the future of work • 1982 "No More Witchhunts, A Street Festival" (3/4" 15 min.) 1980. With hand-held camera, Kramer interviews participants while roaming the activist street fair that was held near The Cooper Union in New York. The festival was directed and curated by Margia Kramer with PAD/D and The Fund for Open Information and Accountability • 1980 "Freedom of Information Tape 1; Jean Seberg "' (3/4" 18 min.) A dramatic recounting of Jean Seberg's life, career, and death combining voice-over enactments of texts from Seberg's writings and magazine interviews, original and appropriated footage and voice-over, archival film stills, and excerpts from the film "Breathless," (1960) by Jean-Luc Godard

• "Essential Documents, The FBI File on Jean Seberg, Part I, Part II" (1979) by Margia Kramer • "Secret I" (1980) floor installation with pamphlet, Artists Space Gallery, New York • "Secret III" "Secret IV" (1980) window installations with pamphlets, Printed Matter and Franklin Furnace, New York • "Secret VI" (1980) video installation, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London • "Freedom of Information Tapes 1-3," (1980-1985) • "American Film Institute First and Fifth Annual Video Festivals," (1981, 1985) • "Progress/Memory II (1984) video installation, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • "Jean Seberg" in "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists" (1980), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London • "Progress/Memory" in "Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream 1970 to 1985" (1989-1990) United States (multiple showings) 1988-90 • "Address Triptych" (1987-1988) in 1990 exhibition, "A Different War: Vietnam in Art," at the Whatcom Museum, Seattle WA • "CIA Screen," in "Democracy and Politics," (1993), Group Material at Dia Art Foundation, New York • "Rehnquist to Hear Black Panther Case," in "Committed to Print" (1988-1990), Museum of Modern Art, New York • "Andy Warhol et al. The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (1988) Book • "Looking at Militarism" (1989), film and video installation, List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology • "I a WO/MAN" (1989), video and film installation, San Francisco Artspace • "Jean Seberg" in "Postcards from Alphaville: Jean Luc Godard in Contemporary Art 1963-1992" (1992-1993), P.S.1, Institute for Contemporary Art, New York

One-person exhibitions: • 1989 "I a WO/MAN" San Francisco Artspace, San Francisco, California • 1989 "Looking at Militarism" List Visual Arts Center, M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts • 1988 "Obelisk, for Raymond Williams" City Hall Park, New York (The Public Art Fund) • 1988 "War and Peace" Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, New York • 1986 "Freedom of Information Tapes 1-3," Anthology Film Archives, Millennium Film Workshop, New York • 1984 "Progress (Memory)" video installation, New American Filmmakers Series, Whitney Museum of Art, New York • 1984 "Progress and Access" computer and video installation, Vassar College Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York • 1983 "Progress (Memory) I" video installation, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York • 1981 "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media" video installation with pamphlet, Museum of Modern Art, New York • 1981 "Let and Right" video installation with books and pamphlets, A Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada • 1981 "Jean Seberg" video installation with books/pamphlets, Artemesia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois • 1980 "Secret VI" video installation with pamphlets, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England • 1980 "Secret III" "Secret IV" window installations with pamphlets, Printed Matter and Franklin Furnace, New York • 1980 "10 Year Retrospective" Duke University Art Gallery, Durham, North Carolina • 1980 "Secret I" floor installation with pamphlet, Artists Space Gallery, New York Group exhibitions: • 2015 "Learn to Read: A Surviving History of Printed Matter," Fales Library, New York University, New York • 2014 "Behind the Personal Library: Collectors Creating the Canon," Center for Book Arts, New York • 2014 "The Library Vaccine," Artists Space Books and Talks, NY • 2004 "The C Series," Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York • 2003 "American Tableaux," Miami Art Museum, Florida • 1993 "Women Artists' Books 1969-1979," Dia Art Foundation and Printed Matter, New York • 1992-93 "Postcards from Alphaville: Jean Luc Godard in Contemporary Art 1963-1992," P.S.1 (The Institute for Contemporary Art), New York • 1989-92 "A Different War: Vietnam in Art," traveled from Akron Art Museum throughout U.S. • 1989-90 "Image World: Art and Media Culture," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • 1989-90 "Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move Into the Mainstream 1970 to 1985," from Cincinnati Art Museum toured the US • 1988-90 "Committed to Print," traveled from Museum of Modern Art New York throughout North America • 1988-90 "Unknown Secrets," a traveling exhibition about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, toured museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout US • 1989 "Artists' Books: An Alternative Space for Art" Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio • 1988 "Democracy and Politics," Group Material, Dia Art Foundation, New York • 1987 "Social Engagement: Women's Video in the 80's," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • 1987 "Surveillance," LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles, California • 1987 "Urban Images of the 80's," Exit Art Gallery, New York • 1986 "The Law and Order Show," Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York • 1986 "Cinemaobject," City Gallery, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York • 1985 "American Film Institute Fifth Annual Video Festival," Los Angeles, California • 1985 "WorldWide Video Festival," Kijkhuis, The Hague, the Netherlands • 1985 "Disinformation," The Alternative Museum, New York • 1984 "Women and the Media, New Video," Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio • 1983 "Ninth Annual Global Village Documentary Festival," Global Village. New York • 1983 "Not Misinformation," P.S. 122 Gallery, New York • 1983 "The Artist's Use of Language," Franklin Furnace, New York • 1982-83 "CAPS Traveling Video Festival," New York State Council on the Arts, New York • 1982 "Not Misinformation," Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey • 1981 "American Film Institute First Annual Video Festival," Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. • 1980 "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, England (curated by Lucy Lippard) • 1980 "Group," Group Material Gallery, New York • 1980 "Women Artists' Books," AIR Gallery, New York 1980, "Vigilance" Franklin Furnace, New York, • 1979 "Group," 112 Workshop, 112 Greene Street, New York • 1976 "Scale," The Fine Arts Building, New York • 1975 "Group," 112 Greene Street Gallery, New York • 1974 "Vera List Selects," Hurlbutt Gallery, Connecticut • 1974 "Continuing Abstraction in American Art," Downtown Branch, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York • 1974 "New Talent Show," Betty Parsons Gallery, New York

• B. A. in fine arts and languages, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Studied painting and printmaking with Ad Reinhardt, Kurt Seligmann, and Burgoyne Diller. • M.A. in history of art, Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where she studied renaissance printmaking with Colin Eisler, and was a student of Edward Laning at the Arts Students League. • Workshops with dancers Simone Forti and Yvonne Rainer.