Will Hennig

Will Hennig
Name	Will Hennig
Occupation	Artist; Curator; Educator

Will Hennig is a contemporary artist, curator, and educator known for interdisciplinary practice that intersects visual art, installation, and institutional critique. His work engages with museum systems, archival materials, and historical narratives through layered interventions that combine sculpture, print, and exhibition strategies. Hennig has exhibited internationally and collaborated with galleries, museums, and academic institutions.

Early life and education

Hennig was born in the United States and raised amid cultural centers that informed his formative interests in art and history. He completed undergraduate studies at a university noted for visual arts programs before pursuing graduate work at an art school with strong ties to curatorial practice. During his education Hennig engaged with the collections and archives of institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Guggenheim Museum and studied historic exhibitions like the Armory Show and the Documenta series. Influential mentors and visiting critics included figures associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Getty Research Institute.

Career

Hennig’s career bridges studio practice, curatorial projects, and teaching appointments at universities and art schools. He has held artist residencies and curatorial fellowships with organizations including the MacDowell Colony, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Walker Art Center. His curatorial collaborations and institutional partnerships have involved the New Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Hennig has lectured at the Yale School of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of the Arts, and participated in panels at conferences such as the College Art Association meetings and symposiums hosted by the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Major contributions and research

Hennig’s contributions lie in recontextualizing archival materials and museum infrastructures to critique exhibition histories and provenance narratives. His research draws upon archives at institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the National Archives and Records Administration. He has examined landmark exhibitions including Les XX, The Armory Show (1913), and retrospectives at the Tate Gallery to interrogate modes of display and collecting. Hennig’s practice references theorists and curators from the Princeton University Art Museum milieu and dialogues with scholarship associated with the Getty Conservation Institute and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Projects have engaged with legal and ethical frameworks connected to works housed at the Louvre, the Hermitage Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Publications and exhibitions

Hennig’s solo and group exhibitions have been held at venues such as the Hammer Museum, the Haus der Kunst, the Centre Pompidou, the Serpentine Galleries, the Haus am Waldsee, the Kunsthaus Zürich, and independent spaces in cities like New York City, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Paris. He has produced catalogues and essays for exhibition publications alongside writers affiliated with the Princeton University Press, the University of Chicago Press, the MIT Press, and the Tate Publishing imprint. His writings and artist statements have appeared in journals and magazines including Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, October, and ArtReview. Collaborative projects have been presented at festivals and fairs such as Frieze London, Art Basel, Venice Biennale, and documenta fifteen-adjacent events.

Awards and recognition

Hennig has been recognized with grants, awards, and fellowships from organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Henry Moore Foundation, and regional arts councils. He has received project support from foundations including the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation, and named residencies at the Cité internationale des arts and the American Academy in Rome. His work has been shortlisted for prizes administered by institutions such as the Turner Prize selectors and acknowledged in critical surveys produced by the Biennale of Sydney and the Whitney Biennial curatorial teams.

Personal life and legacy

Hennig maintains a studio practice while serving as faculty or visiting critic at higher-education institutions and art centers. His collaborations with curators, conservators, and archivists contribute to ongoing dialogues about institutional responsibility and public access to collections in museums from the Guggenheim Bilbao to regional museums across the United States. Students and peers cite Hennig’s pedagogical influence in programs at the Cooper Union, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Maryland Institute College of Art. Through exhibitions, publications, and mentorship, Hennig’s legacy is tied to sustained inquiry into the histories of display and the infrastructures that shape cultural memory.

Category:Contemporary artists Category:American artists