Monica Bonvicini
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Biography
Born 1965 in Venice, Italy
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Monica Bonvicini is one of the most influential artists of her generation, well-known for her sharp and provocative artworks spanning sculpture, installation, drawing, video, and public projects. Her artistic exploration centers on the intersections of architecture, gender dynamics, and power structures, with a unique focus on both the built environment and the concept of destruction as a transformative agent. In her distinctive style, enriched with a dry and trenchant wit, Bonvicini's art remains unapologetically forthright, consistently forging a critical connection with the environments in which it is displayed, the very materials that constitute it, and the dynamic roles assigned to both the viewer and the artist.
Over the last three decades, Bonvicini's innovative practice has made her a prominent figure in the global contemporary art world. Her practice has remained steadfast in delivering incisive critiques of entrenched patriarchal and socio-cultural conventions, reshaping contemporary art discourse and practice. She is also a well-regarded scholar, having held a professorship in Sculpture and Performative Arts at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy from 2003 to 2017. Since October 2017, Bonvicini assumed the professorship for Sculpture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She has also been a guest lecturer at major universities in Europe and abroad.
Monica Bonvicini has held major solo exhibitions at institutions including Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Kunst Museum Winterthur; Kunsthaus Graz; Kunsthalle Bielefeld; Belvedere 21, Vienna; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, among others. From 2003 to 2017, Bonvicini was a Professor of Sculpture and Performance Art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Since 2017, she has been Professor of Sculpture at the Universität der Künste Berlin.
Her work has been featured in many prominent biennials, including Busan (2020); Istanbul (2017, 2003); Venice (2015, 2011, 2005, 2001, 1999); Berlin (2014, 2004, 1998); New Orleans (2008); Gwangju (2006); Sao Paulo (2006); Shanghai (2002); and Santa Fe (1999).
Bonvicini has earned several awards, including the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Austria (2020); the Hans Platschek Prize for Art and Writing, Germany (2019); the Roland Prize for Art in Public Space from the Foundation Bremen, Germany (2013); the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2005); the Golden Lion at the Biennale di Venezia (1999).
Bonvicini's artworks are permanently installed in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London; on the waterfront at Bjørvika, before the Den Norske Opera & Ballett House, Oslo; and in the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen. In 2012 Bonvicini was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Bonvicini’s work is included in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Istanbul Museum of Art; Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; MAXXI, Rome; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Jumex Museum, Mexico City; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich; Museion, Bolzano; Neue Galerie, Graz; Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin; Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin; Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich; Kunst Museum Winterthur, among others.
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Since the mid-1990s Monica Bonvicini has been exploring political, social, and institutional situations and their impact on society, as well as on the conditions of artistic production. Her work is direct, merciless, political, and not without a dry sense of humor. In the process, she focuses on the relationship between architecture, gender roles, control mechanisms, and devices of power.
– Axel Köhne, Curator, Belvedere 21
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Ph: Jens Ziehe
Monica Bonvicini
Picked Up and Thrown, 2020Spray paint on Fabriano paperDiptych
Each 150 x 100 cm / 59 x 39.4 inchesB-MBONVICINI-.24-0005Picked Up and Thrown is part of a recent body of work which began in the wake of insurgent movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. First exhibited at...Picked Up and Thrown is part of a recent body of work which began in the
wake of insurgent movements such as #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. First
exhibited at Kunsthalle Bielefeld in the solo exhibition Monica Bonvicini:
Lover‘s Material, these drawings feature text on soft pink, grey or black
backgrounds with faint grid lines, some incorporating images cast from
sprayed chains or barbed wire. Christina Végh, Director of Kunsthalle
Bielefeld, describes the series as „a cartography of emotions,“ exploring
various modes of connection and tension within relationships. Themes such
as love, aggression, feminism, and rage are depicted through fragments
from notable authors and literary works, in this case Roland Barthes and
Margaret Atwood, that have been reshaped by the artist into new syntactic
and semantic forms.Exhibitions
Monica Bonvicini, & Liberation, Galerie Gisela Capitain Petzel, Cologne, 2024ExhibitionsExternal ExhibitionsNewsPressPublicationsVideoAnd Rose – Monica Bonvicini's solo show at San Carlo Cremona
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