Joan Jonas

One of the most significant artists in the history of video and performance, Joan Jonas was born in 1936 in New York, where she lives and works.

Beginning in the 1960s, Joan placed female subjectivity at the centre of her work, employing a complex linguistic repertoire including gestures, storytelling and images in movement. A tireless experimenter she explores the possibilities inherent to the interdisciplinary nature of art, a characteristic that has made her a point of reference for a young generation of artists. Over time, she has established an intense relationship of exchange in collaborations with visual artists such as Peter Campus and Richard Serra, the performer Ragani Haas and musicians Alvin Curran and Jason Moran. The continuous renewal and transpositions of the media Jonas experiments with sources from fairy tales to essays, from myths to local folklore and relate newly to contemporary life, both poetically and politically.

Institutions that have hosted solo shows by Joan Jonas include: Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2022); Dia Art Foundation, Beacon, New York (2021); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (2020); Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, San Paolo, Brasil (2020); Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan, organized by Inamori Foundation (2019); Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2019); Tate Modern, London, UK (2018); Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston (2017); NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Singapore (2016); Fundacion Botin, Santander, Spain (2016); HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2014); Sigmund Freud Museum, Wien, Austria (2006); Le Plateau e Jeu de Paume / Hotel de Sully, Paris, France (2005); Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago (2004); Queens Museum of Art, New York (2003); Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany (2000); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1994).

Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as: at dawn, Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, Germany (2022); The Imperament Display II, LUMA Foundation, Arles, France (2022); AQUARIA. Or the Illusion of a Boxed Sea, MAAT, Lisbon, Portugal (2021); The Paradox of Stillness: Art, Object, and Performance, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2021); The Unexpected Subject. 1978 Art and Feminism in Italy, FM Centre for Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy (2019); The Long Run, MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017); DO DISTURB, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015). Among other institution that shown works by Joan Jonas: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (2010); La Biennale di Venezia (2009), Venice, Italy; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain (2009); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2006); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2006); Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Chicago (2004); P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2003); Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York (2001); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1995).

In 2015 Jonas represented the United States at the 56th Venice Biennale. She has taken part in Documenta V, VI, VII, VIII, XI, XIII in Kassel, Germany. In 2019 the artist received the prestigious Kyoto Prize and in 2009 she obtained the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.