Anna Boghiguian

This is the first major retrospective exhibition in the UK of the artist Anna Boghiguian (born Cairo 1946). It brings together an extraordinary body of notebooks, drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures as well as spectacular large-scale installations and elements of Boghiguian’s own studio. 

Ranging from Boghiguian’s artist books, to large-scale installations made of painted sailcloth, papier-mâché sculptures, cut-out paper figures, and beehive frames containing drawings, paintings, honeycomb and salt, the exhibition explores three decades of her work. Recent installations including A Play to Play (2013), The Salt Traders (2015), and A Walk Through the Subconscious (2016) will be featured in the show. Alongside these existing works, Boghiguian will also be making a new work especially for the Tate St Ives presentation. 

Boghiguian studied political science at the American University in Cairo in the 1960s. She then moved to Canada in the early 1970s, studying art and music in Montreal. While keeping her studio and home in Cairo, Boghiguian currently lives and works in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Informed by her continuous travels around the world and a deep interest in history and philosophy, Boghiguian is an acute observer of the human condition.  Exploring topics such as global trade, mass migration, colonialism and conflict, she often brings together references from different times and geographies, drawing parallels between past and present.  

Boghiguian’s recent solo shows include the New Museum, New York 2018, Museum der Moderne Salzburg 2018, Sharjah Art Foundation 2018, Castello di Rivoli 2017, and Carré d’Art - Museum of Contemporary Art Nîmes, France 2016. Her work has also been part of numerous group exhibitions at Artes Mundi 8, Cardiff 2018, the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw 2018, La Triennale di Milano 2017, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven 2015, the Armenian Pavilion, winner of The Golden Lion award, at the 56th Venice Biennial 2015, Istanbul Biennial 2015, Sharjah Biennial 2015, São Paulo Biennial 2014 and dOCUMENTA(13), Kassel 2012. 

The exhibition is curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Marianna Vecellio of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino with Anne Barlow of Tate St Ives.