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 solo exhibitions at major institutions including Pinacoteca Agnelli, Lingotto, Turin (since 2024); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2022–2023); Kunst Museum Winterthur (2022); Kunsthaus Graz (2022); Bauhaus Dessau (2022); Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2020); Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019); Berlinische Galerie (2017); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2016); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2012); and Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2012). Her works have been featured in numerous institutional group exhibitions, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2025); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2023); Kunsthaus Zürich (2023); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2022); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2021, 2005); National Gallery, Copenhagen (2019); MAXXI, Rome (2024, 2018); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2017); MAMBO, Bogotá (2016); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2013); Fridericianum, Kassel (2011); MoMA PS1, New York (2009); and Lenbachhaus, Munich (2009). Bonvicini has also participated in major biennials including Busan (2020), Istanbul (2017, 2003), and Venice (2015, 2011, 2005, 2001, 1999).
Bonvicini has been honored with various awards: most recently, she received the Oskar Kokoschka Prize in 2020; in 2013, the Roland Prize for Art in Bremen; in 2005, the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art in Berlin; and in 1999, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Since 2003, she has taught sculpture and performance art, first at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and, since 2017, sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
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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Works
Monica Bonvicini
North Carolina 2011, 2019Tempera and spray paint on Fabriano paperPaper dimensions:
150 x 200 cm / 59 x 78.7 inches
Framed dimensions:
160.5 x 210 cm / 63.2 x 82.7 inchesB-MBONVICINI-.23-0005North Carolina 2011 is part of Monica Bonvicini’s series of works that reference the impressive media coverage surrounding destruction caused by natural catastrophes, such as hurricane Katrina, the storm that...North Carolina 2011 is part of Monica Bonvicini’s series of works that reference the impressive media coverage surrounding destruction caused by natural catastrophes, such as hurricane Katrina, the storm that devastated New Orleans in 2005. Bonvicini employs the spectacular stream of images documenting disaster to elaborate on her long-standing fascination with architecture as an embodiment and instrument of existing power structures. The works are both representative of natural catastrophes, as well as a reflection on urban environments as places of segregation. All the more relevant in a time where the inevitability of a climate crisis has become painfully acute, these works speak on the way architecture functions as a mirror of society an indicator of shifting economic demography.
The photographic source material is skilfully rendered in hazy spray paint and tempera that oozes down the surface of the paper in thick streams, emphasizing a pervasive feeling of doom throughout the body of work. The series can be seen in lineage of canonical works of contemporary art, such as Dan Graham’s photo series Homes for America (1966-67). In Bonvicini’s case architecture confronts important feminist tropes related to power, labor and the urban environment that are inevitably linked to the collective and individual formation of identity both in the public and private spheres. The artist has stated: “What has interested me for a long time is the fact that architecture always has, in some way, gendered connotations”, and “Home is the place where the first sense of identity is formed. Home is always about memory, too.”Exhibitions
Monica Bonvicini, Hurricanes and Other Catastrophes, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, 2022
Monica Bonvicini. Lover's Material, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2021Publications
Colin Lang, Monica Bonvicini: Hot like Hell: Cat. Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Snoeck Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2021) (unpaged).
ExhibitionsExternal ExhibitionsNewsPressPublicationsVideoAnd Rose – Monica Bonvicini's solo show at San Carlo Cremona
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