Born in 1956 in Lima, Ohio, Ann Hamilton received a BFA in textile design from the University of Kansas in 1979 and an MFA in sculpture from the Yale University School of Art in 1985. Textiles and fabric have consistently played an important role in her performances and installations—whether she is considering clothing as a membrane or (more recently) treating architecture itself as a kind of skin. She was selected to represent the United States in the São Paulo Bienal in 1991 and the Venice Biennale in 1999. In 1993, she was awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. After teaching at the University of California at Santa Barbara from 1985 to 1991, she returned to Ohio, where she lives and works. Hamilton has also been a professor at Ohio State University since 2001.