Mai-Thu Perret (b. 1976, Geneva, Switzerland) is
known for her multidisciplinary practice that engages feminist politics,
literary texts and homemade crafts, alongside a range of 20th century
avant-garde and radical art movements, from Constructivism and Dada to Bauhaus
design.
Since the late 1990s, Mai-Thu Perret’s work evolved
around The Crystal Frontier, a fictional narrative about a group of feminist
activists who broke away from patriarchal society to found a utopian community.
This ever-expanding narrative serves as the background for Mai-Thu Perret’s
broad net of reference, reaching from literature to the craft focused movements
of the late 19th and early 20th century, avant-garde aesthetics of modernity,
the spiritual and the poetic that she virtuously intertwines with art-immanent
questions of materiality and form. From early on, ceramic material played a
fundamental role in Perret’s practice owing to its wide-ranging anthropological
significance, inherent tactility and reliance upon the transformative role
played by fire. (Francesca Pia / Zürich)
Mai-Thu Perret has exhibited internationally since
the early 2000s. Selected institutional solo exhibitions include Istituto Svizzero, Rome (2022), Badischer
Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (2019), Spike Island, Bristol (2019), MAMCO, Geneva
(2018), NICC, Brussels (2017), Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016), Aargauer
Kunsthaus, Aargau (2011), Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2011), MAMCO, Geneva
(2011), Aspen Art Museum (2009), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008), The
Kitchen, New York (2008), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2006), Chisenhale Gallery,
London (2006). Recent institutional group exhibition include Glasgow
International, Glasgow (2019), Met Breuer, New York (2019), The Aldrich
Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut
(2018), Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich (2018), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2018), The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2018), Kunsthaus Zurich (2018),
Kunsthalle Basel (2018), Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2017), San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016), Swiss Institute, New York (2015),
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht (2015) and Migros Museum, Zurich (2015). Her work
forms part of the collection of many major institutions. Mai-Thu Perret lives
and works in Geneva.
↱ detailed biography
