Michael Wang (artist)

Extinct in New York was one of two inaugural exhibitions at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Arts Center at Governors Island in the fall of 2019. It returned to New York City species of plants, algae, and lichen known historically from the city but that no longer grow wild in any of the five boroughs. It was curated by Swiss Institute and was covered in Artforum, Fast Company, Art in America, and Hyperallergic.

Wang's project Extinct in the Wild was first presented at the Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2017. It brings species of plants and animals that are no longer found in nature – but persist under human care – into spaces of art.

Wang was a recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant in 2017 and the Curate Award, presented by the Fondazione Prada and the Qatar Museums Authority, in 2014.

Early work includes the series Rivals (2014–), which engages the history of the readymade and its relationship to corporate capitalism, and Carbon Copies (2012–), which represents the carbon footprints of well known contemporary artworks as a set of sculptural objects. These objects, which the artist calls "Carbon Copies", are in turn sold in exchange for carbon offsets, erasing the carbon footprints of the works they represent.

Wang was born in Olney, Maryland. He received his BA in Social Anthropology and Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University in 2003, an MA in Performance Studies from New York University in 2004, and an M.Arch from Princeton University in 2008.

Michael Benjamin Wang (born May 12, 1981) is an American artist based in New York. Wang's work uses systems that operate at a global scale as media for art: climate change, species distribution, resource allocation and the global economy. His works include Carbon Copies, an exhibition linking the production of artworks to the release of greenhouse gases, World Trade, a series tracing the trade in steel from the World Trade Center following the attacks of September 11, 2001; and Extinct in the Wild, a project that brings species that no longer exist in nature, but that persist under human care, into spaces of art. Wang's work has been shown in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, including the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Arts Center at Governors Island in New York City, Manifesta 12 in Palermo, Italy, the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York, Parque Cultural de Valparaíso, Fondazione Prada in Milan, and Foxy Production in New York.