GATESHEAD.- BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art iannounces a major exhibition of the work of American artist Andrea Zittel. Born in Escondido, California in 1965, Zittel received a BFA in painting and sculpture from San Diego State University in 1988 and an MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1990. She began her practice in New York in the early 1990s and established A-Z East, a small house in Brooklyn which she turned into a testing ground for prototypes for living. In 2000 she moved back to the West Coast, eventually settling in the High Desert region next to Joshua Tree National Park where she founded A-Z West.

In California Zittel began creating minimal households in which everyday activities such as sleeping, eating, cooking and socializing become artistic actions. Zittel is now most closely associated with these remarkable utopian structures which, in different ways, explore what humans need for survival. Her projects are deeply rooted in her own everyday life and her work delves into many different fields such as architecture, painting, photography, design, textiles, needlework and cooking. For over two decades Zittel’s experiments have included dressing in the same home-sewn uniform for months on end, exploring restrictions in living space by living on an artificial island or living without measured time.

This exhibition focuses on ideas relating to A–Z West. Alongside sculpture, works in textiles and on paper, the presentation includes seven ‘Wagon Stations’ - moveable living units that have been customised by the artist’s friends and collaborators. It also includes Lay of My Land, a new, large-scale sculpture specially commissioned for the exhibition. Comprised of seven elements, it replicates the dramatic topographical figuration of the landscape that surrounds A–Z West in the Mojave Desert. An extensive new monograph on the artist also accompanies the exhibition and includes exclusive new photography taken in spring 2011.

Andrea Zittel: Lay of My Land is organised and was originated by Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall where it was presented from September - December 2011. It is curated by Richard Julin, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Magasin 3, with Andrea Zittel. The exhibition includes the production of a new, large-scale work entitled Lay of My Land and a new publication of the same name.

Andrea Zittel has been included in numerous group exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and Documenta X. She has had solo exhibitions at institutions including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark and Schaulager, Basel.