Monica Bonvicini | Galleria Raffaella Cortese

biography

Born in Venice in 1965, Monica Bonvicini studied art in Berlin and at Cal Arts, Valencia, CA. Since 2003 she holds a position as Professor for Performative Arts and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Beginning in October 2017 she assumes the professorship for sculpture at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. She lives and works in Berlin.

Monica Bonvicini emerged as visual artist and started exhibiting internationally in the mid-1990s. Her multifaceted practice—which investigates the relationship between architecture, power, gender, space, surveillance and control—is translated into works that question the meaning of making art, the ambiguity of language, and the limits and possibilities attached 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, the materials that comprise it, and the roles of spectator and creator. This approach, which has been at the core of her production since her first solo exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts in 1991, has formally evolved over the years without betraying its analytical force and inclination to challenge the viewer’s perspective while taking hefty sideswipes at socio-cultural conventions.

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 2019 Premio ACACIA alla Carriera, Milan, Italy; and the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Vienna, Austria (2020). Her work has been featured in many prominent biennials, including Berlin (1998, 2004, 2014), La TriennaIe Paris (2012), Istanbul (2003, 2017), Gwangju (2006), New Orleans (2008), and Venice (1999, 2001, 2005, 2011, 2015). She has had solo exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2002); Modern Art Oxford, England (2003); Secession, Vienna (2003); Staedtisches Museum Abteiberg (2005, 2012); SculptureCenter, New York (2007); Art Institute of Chicago (2009); Kunstmuseum Basel (2009); Frac des Pays de la Loire, France (2009); Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2011); Centro de Arte Contemporaneo de Malága, Spain (2011); Deichtorhallen Hamburg (2012); Kunsthalle Mainz (2013); BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, England (2016); Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2017); and Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019).

In 2012 Bonvicini has been appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Her most recent monographs have been published by Phaidon, London in 2014; Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld in 2017; Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne in 2019.

Sculptures created by Bonvicini are now permanently installed in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London; the harbor at the Oslo Opera House, Norway; and the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art.

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gallery exhibitions

Unrequited Love

september 20 – november 23, 2019

via a. stradella 7-1-4

Our House

march 23 – april 26, 2017

Via A. Stradella 7–1–4

images

Structural Psychodrama #3, 2017

polystyrene, aluminium, MDF, plaster, paint, chain steel, hook.

440 × 630 × 28 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Marlboro Man, 2019

Silkscreen on aluminum

400 × 620 cm

Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Unrequited Love, 2019

Installation view at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via A. Stradella 4, 2019

Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Fleurs du Mal (pink), 2019

Steel, hand blown glass

170 × 150 × 150 cm (approx.)

Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Fleurs du Mal (pink), 2019 (detail)

Steel, hand blown glass

170 × 150 × 150 cm (approx.)

Photo: Andrea Rossetti

Hurricanes and Other Catastrophes

Alabama 2011, 2016

Diptych

Tempera and spray paint on Fabriano paper mounted on canvas

198 × 307 cm overall; 2 pieces 198 x 153 cm

Italian Homes