The sculptures, paintings, ceramic works, performances, and texts of Mai-Thu Perret (b. 1976, Geneva) exist at the intersection of contemporary culture, art historical critique, and visceral materiality. She explores (and generates) feminist narratives and counter-narratives that cast the role of the art object in new light, introducing utilitarian, symbolic, and even mystical possibilities in contexts that are often limited to formalist readings. In her encompassing vision, for instance, the development of modernism appears not only as a story about increasing abstraction, but as the outgrowth of biological and neurological patterns that have informed human expression throughout the globe for thousands of years. Perret’s work shows how bodies are always implicit subjects of artistic discourse, and how impulses for utopian transcendence (aesthetic, political, or otherwise) can always be traced back to the physicality of desire.
Mai-Thu Perret has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (2019); Spike Island, Bristol, England (2019); MAMCO, Geneva (2019); Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva (2016); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016); Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (2012); Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2011); University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor (2010); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2008); and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (2006). Her work is in the public collections of many museums, including the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, Paris; Collection Aargauer Kunsthaus, Arau, Switzerland; Fond National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Perret lives and works in Geneva.
Mai-Thu Perret
Eventail des caresses (Coeur, Poumons, Utérus), 2018
bronze
installation dimensions variable
Edition of 3, with 1 AP
Mai-Thu Perret
Pearls roll, gems tumble, every facet gleaming and tumbling, 2017
glazed ceramic
16 x 20 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches
(40.6 x 52.1 x 9.5 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Agoraphobia I, 2016
acrylic paint on carpet
157 1/2 x 118 x 1 inches
(400.1 x 299.7 x 2.5 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Figures, 2014
Performance view, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva
Mai-Thu Perret
Black Balthazar, 2013
birch plywood, rattan core, and water-based paint
48 1/2 x 45 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches
(123 x 115 x 30 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Using a finger to indicate that a finger is not a finger is not as good as using a non-finger to indicate that a finger is not a finger, 2012
glazed ceramic
14 1/2 x 19 x 2 inches
(37 x 48 x 5 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
2016, 2011
neon
108 x 106 x 3 1/2 inches
(274.3 x 269.2 x 8.9 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
The great earth is so vast it saddens the people terribly, 2011
glazed ceramic
18 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches
(47 x 40 x 14 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Migraine II, 2010
acrylic on carpet, mounted on board
72 x 96 inches
(182.9 x 243.8 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Society is a Hole, 2009
screenprint on paper
33 1/8 x 23 1/2 inches
(84.1 x 59.4 cm)
Edition of 25
Mai-Thu Perret
Radio Transmission, 2008
appliqué on cotton fabric
67 x 56 inches
(170 x 142 cm)
Mai-Thu Perret
Apocalypse Ballet (Pink Ring), 2006
wire, papier-mâché, emulsion
paint, varnish, gouache, wig, fluorescent tubes, viscose dress, and
leather belt
70 x 53 x 39 3/8 inches
(177.8 x 134.6 x 100 cm)