Miriam Cahn

Miriam Cahn (born in Basel in 1949) represents one of the most highly regarded artistic positions in Switzerland; today, she is also considered one of the world's most important artists. She was invited to documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982 and represented at the Venice Biennale in 1984. Since then, her work has been shown in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, including Kunsthalle Basel (1983), Museum of Modern Art, New York (1984), Kunstmuseum Bonn (1985), Kunsthaus Zurich (1993), Fundación La Caixa, Madrid (2003), Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2004), Badischer Kunstverein (2014) and Kunsthalle zu Kiel (2016). In addition, Miriam Cahn has been represented at documenta 14, Kassel (2017), and the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018). Her work was exhibited in 2022 at venues including the Fondazione ICA Milano in Milan and the main exhibition of the 59th Venice Biennale.
Miriam Cahn lives and works in Stampa, Graubünden, Switzerland.

Since the beginning of her artistic development in the 1970s, Miriam Cahn has adopted a consciously feminist and self-determined stance. Starting from drawing and free from academic rules, Cahn has developed a highly expressive body of painterly work that incorporates other artistic forms such as writing, photography, film and sculpture.
At the centre of her interest lies the human being, the fragility of the human body, but also its relationship with nature: animals, plants and landscapes. Personal experiences, family memories and contemporary observations intertwine with socio-political events. Womanhood, gender, love, sexuality, violence, anti-Semitism, war and flight are recurring themes in her work. Cahn uncompromisingly confronts viewers with her perspective on the unspeakable, demanding close observation and a profound engagement with the contradictions of our world.

In 2022, we had the privilege of filming the artist during the installation of her exhibition MEINEJUDEN and producing a trailer for the MGKSiegen.

The exhibition MEINEJUDEN, marking the 14th Rubens Prize awarded by the City of Siegen, offers a comprehensive overview of Miriam Cahn’s diverse body of work. In fourteen rooms specially designed by the artist, she presents key groups of works and installations from the last five decades, including numerous new pieces. Taking up the exhibition title she chose herself, the Rubens Prize winner once again explores the theme of Jewishness in her current works.