Since the beginning of her career in Belgrade during the early 1970s, Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art, creating some of the form's most important early works. Exploring her physical and mental limits, she has withstood pain, exhaustion and danger in her quest for emotional and spiritual transformation. She founded the Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) in 2007, a platform for immaterial and long durational work to create new possibilities for collaboration among thinkers of all fields.

 

Abramović was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. In 2010, Abramović had her first major US retrospective and simultaneously performed for over 700 hours in The Artist is Present at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her retrospective The Cleaner opened at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in 2017, and toured to seven additional European venues, ending at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia, in 2019. In 2020, the Bayerische Staatsoper presented the world premiere of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, which has continued to tour  internationally. In 2023 she will present the solo exhibition After Life at the Royal Academy, London, and will become the first female artist in the institution’s 250-year history to occupy the entire gallery space with her work. She will also present two shows at Lisson Gallery London this autumn, in Cork Street and Lisson Street.

  • Statement

    Why are we doing this show together?

     

    In the past, in art history, there were some great examples of friendship between artists. Right now, today, these kinds of friendships are extremely rare and are almost non-existent, there are many reasons for this. Art has become more of a commodity, which creates this distance between artists. 

     

    I am very excited to show with two young artists, whose work I know, and have gained my respect, in the process of which we became friends. In art, age does not exist, it is all about the ideas and the content. For our upcoming exhibition, "The Humble Works", I am seeing this as an ongoing dialogue between Nico, Fyodor and me, as well as a conversation with some masters from different periods of our human history.

  • DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ, Mother Jerónima de la Fuente, 1620

    DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ

    Mother Jerónima de la Fuente, 1620

    A highlight of the exhibition is the presentation of Diego Velázquez’s full-length portrait of Mother Jerónima de la Fuente from 1620, rarely seen on public view in the U.K. The imposing depiction of the Spanish nun from the order of the Poor Clares is regarded as a leading example of the artist’s unparalleled skills as a portraitist. Abramović  responds to Velásquez with a range of new and existing works including a suite of photographic works and a site-specific installation (some of which can be seen below). 

  • Artworks

    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Table of 10,000 Tears, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Table of 10,000 Tears, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, The Kitchen IV, 2009
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, The Kitchen IV, 2009
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Portrait with Laughing Skull (positive), 2019
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Portrait with Laughing Skull (positive), 2019
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Portrait with Laughing Skull (negative), 2019
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Portrait with Laughing Skull (negative), 2019
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Cosmic Being, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Cosmic Being, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Love Stone, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Shaman Drum, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Shaman Drum, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Stretched Snake Skin, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Stretched Snake Skin, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, The Mirror, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, The Mirror, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Witch in the Bottle, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Witch in the Bottle, 2021
    • MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Witch in the Bottle, 2021
      MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, Witch in the Bottle, 2021
  • Collections

    Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Centre d'Art le LAIT, Albi, France
    Centro de Artes Visuales Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain
    Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, USA
    Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
    Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA
    FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
    FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France
    Fundación NMAC Montenmedio Arte Contemporáneo, Vejer de la Frontera, Cádiz, Spain
    Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, Spain
    Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf, Germany
    Kiasma, Helsinki, Finland
    Kunsthalle zu Kiel der Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel, Germany Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland
    Kunstmuseum Wallis, Sion, Switzerland
    Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau, Warth, Switzerland
    National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
    Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
    Musée d'Art Contemporain Lyon, Lyon, France
    Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg
    Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
    Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia
    Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Sydney, Australia
    Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA
    Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
    Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti, Zagreb, Croatia
    Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Niepołomicach, Niepolomice, Poland National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece
    Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands
    Progressive Art Collection, Mayfield Village, OH, USA
    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
    Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA
    Städtische Galerie Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
    Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
    Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome, Italy
    Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands
    Wanas Foundation, Knislinge, Sweden