Monica Bonvicini

Born 1965 in Venice, Italy

Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Monica Bonvicini emerged as a visual artist and started exhibiting internationally in the mid-1990s. Her multifaceted practice investigates the relationship between architecture, power structures, gender roles, control mechanisms and space. Her research is translated into works that question the meaning of making art, the ambiguity of language, and the limits and possibilities connected to the ideal of freedom. Dry-humored, direct, and imbued with historical, political and social references, Bonvicini’s art never refrains from establishing a critical connection with the sites where it is exhibited, its materials, and the roles of spectator and creator. Since her first solo exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts in 1991, her approach has formally evolved over the years without betraying its analytical force and inclination to challenge the viewer’s perspective while taking hefty sideswipes at patriarchal, socio-cultural conventions.

Monica Bonvicini studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin and the California Institute of Arts in Valencia. From 1998 to 2002, she lived in Los Angeles, where she taught at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. From 2003 to 2017, she was professor of performative art and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Monica Bonvicini has been a professor of sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin since 2017. Monica Bonvicini has earned several awards, including the Golden Lion at the Biennale di Venezia 1999; the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 2005; the Rolandpreis für Kunst for art in the public from the Foundation Bremen, Germany 2013, the Hans Platschek Prize for art and writing, Germany 2019, the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Austria 2020.

Her work has been featured in many prominent biennials, including Busan 2020, Berlin 1998, 2004, 2014, Istanbul 2003, 2017, Gwangju 2006, New Orleans 2008, and Venice 1999, 2001, 2005, 2011, 2015, as well as La TriennaIe Paris 2012. She has had numerous solo exhibitions at important art institutions worldwide, such as Palais de Tokyo, Modern Art Oxford, Secession, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Kunstmuseum Basel, Frac des Pays de la Loire, the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Belvedere 21, and many others. Her latest solo exhibition I Do You is to be seen at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin until April 30, 2023.

Her permanent sculptures are installed in public spaces: RUN in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, Hun ligger / She lies in the harbor basin of Oslo in front of the Opera House and Stairway to Hell  in Istanbul Modern.