Installation art encompasses a presentation of works, which may be temporary or permanent, that are usually designed to occupy a specific location and transform the viewer’s experience of that space. Allan Kaprow is often credited as being a pioneer of installation art. Kaprow, a Fluxus artist, considered the whole environment in which his art would be presented and the relationships between individual objects. A key consideration for installation artists is the interaction that will take place between the work and the viewer. The artist ponders how the viewer experiences and even completes the work. In one particularly infamous 1980s case, Minimalist sculptor Richard Serra created a site-specific installation titled Tilted Arc for the Foley Federal Plaza in downtown Manhattan. The large steel sculpture cut through the piazza; while Serra intended for it to alter and enhance the way people experienced the space, it prompted protests from area workers who said it interrupted their daily routines. Eventually, after a lawsuit, the work was removed and destroyed. Because it was site-specific, it could not be moved elsewhere.

Conceptual art can also fall into the category of installation art, though it is not always specific to a single site. Sol LeWitt, a leader of the movement, created hundreds of instructions for drafting wall drawings, which may be installed by meticulously following his instructions. As LeWitt wrote, “the idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” Similarly, contemporary artist Sarah Sze creates site-specific installations that comprise many hundreds or thousands of intricate parts. Though Sze assembles the works herself the first time, a detailed set of instructions accompanies her works so that the installation may later be reassembled in precisely the same manner. Other artists who create installation art include Rachel Whiteread, Claes Oldenburg, Yayoi Kusama, Bruce Nauman, and Olafur Eliasson.