Marianna Simnett: Circus
Reba Maybury: I Come in Peace
March 6–May 31, 2026
Ndidi Dike: Rare Earth Rare Justice
Ndidi Dike is an internationally renowned British-Nigerian sculptor and multi-disciplinary artist born in London. Rare Earth Rare Justice is her first major solo exhibition at an Austrian institution. Her practice engages with the social, political, and economic conditions shaping the modern world, with a particular focus on the legacies of colonialism, postcolonialism, forced migration, and global capitalism. At the centre of her exhibition lies the ongoing exploitation of Africa’s natural resources, and specifically the extraction of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Dike traces how extractive industries fuel ecological devastation, climate change, displacement, and resource-driven conflicts, exposing how global demand for technology is met through systemic violence and dispossession.
Ndidi Dike was born in London, UK, and lives in Lagos, NG.
Programmed by the board of the Secession. Curated by Jeanette Pacher.
Rare Earth Rare Justice was developed by Ndidi Dike in close collaboration with the Secession. Further adapted chapters will be presented at Färgfabriken, Stockholm, in 2026 and at Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, in 2027. The new body of work was co-commissioned by the three partners.
Support from the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs and its Dialogue Residency programme have enabled the artist to refine her exhibition and discuss it with audiences on site in Vienna.
Marianna Simnett: Circus
At the Secession, Marianna Simnett presents Circus, a multimedia exhibition comprising light, sound, and sculptural works that draw on her Yugoslav heritage. Personal references, including a work that was inspired by her Jewish-Croatian grandfather’s experience during the Holocaust, intersect with nods to folkloric bogeywomen, who may interchangeably figure as threat or ally, and the traditional Balkan skirt that stages the delicate play of revealing and concealing intimate body parts. The show’s Circus theme manifests itself in a variety of ways throughout the presentation: in the maniacal spinning of a skirt overhead, alluding to a circus tent; in a stage for a performance; in the sound of torturous laughter; or in dazzling lights illuminating a darkened space.
Marianna Simnett was born in London, UK, in 1986 and lives in New York, USA, and Berlin, Germany.
Programmed by the board of the Secession. Curated by Bettina Spörr.
The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Simona Petrova-Vassileva.
Reba Maybury: I Come in Peace
How do you dominate Gustav Klimt? This was one of the first questions Reba Maybury posed while preparing her exhibition I Come in Peace. Maybury is an artist, writer, and political dominatrix whose multidisciplinary practice interrogates the intersections of feminism, sexuality, labour, and power. Operating under the alias Mistress Rebecca, Maybury disperses patriarchal structures and capitalist desire, often by subverting conventional domination–submission dynamics. Her exhibition unfolds over four sites – across the building’s façade, in the foyer, upstairs in the Grafisches Kabinett, and in the Beethoven Frieze space. The artist conceived a site-responsive project, not only in terms of its architectural interventions but also in its engagement with the institution’s history.
Reba Maybury was born in Oxford, UK, in 1990 and lives in Denmark.
Programmed by the board of the Secession. Curated by Haris Giannouras.
The exhibition was supported by The Danish Arts Foundation and the Fake Foundation. Special thanks to Company Gallery and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi.
Publications
The exhibitions are accompanied by publications. The digital publications are available for free here.
Press contact: presse@secession.at / press materials
