Rivane Neuenschwander
Rivane Neuenschwander has developed a unique practice within the vein of Brazilian conceptualism to investigate the role of chance, control and collaboration. Incorporating influences from Brazil's rich history of art movements over the past fifty years, Neuenschwander has become widely regarded for her ephemeral, engaging work that explores narratives about language, nature, geography, the passing of time and social interactions. To do so, the artist frequently employs external forces – both people and natural processes – to produce a series of dynamic, autonomous results. At times her works are interactive, involving viewers in spontaneous and participatory actions, while at others they are the direct results of empirical processes or experiments. All, however, work to expand the collective consciousness by emphasizing certain phenomena that are often overlooked, yet when finally seen, surprisingly remarkable.
Neuenschwander was born in 1967 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and currently lives and works in São Paulo. She received a BFA from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil in 1993 and completed her MFA at the Royal College of Art in London.
Winner of the Yanghyun Prize in South Korea in 2013 and shortlisted for the Guggenheim Museum’s Hugo Boss Prize in 2004, the artist has exhibited her work internationally throughout the past twenty years. In 2010, the New Museum in New York presented Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other, a major survey exhibition that traveled to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, followed by the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, Miami Art Museum, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin through 2012.
Other important solo exhibitions include Brasil de susto e sonho: um panorama na obra de Rivane Neuenschwander at Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil (2025), Tangolomango at Instituto Inhotim, Brazil (2024-26), dream.lab at Kinder Kunst Labor for Contemporary Art, St. Pölten, Austria (2024-25), Wild Seeds at Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (2022-23), knife does not cut fire at Liechtenstein Kunstmuseum (2021), Quarta-Feira de Cinzas / Epilogue with Cao Guimarães at Tate Modern, London (ongoing), O Nome do Medo (The Name of Fear) at MAR, Museu de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro (2017), The Name of Fear at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015), Mal-Entendidos at Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo, Brazil (2014), At a Certain Distance at Malmo Konsthall, Sweden (2010), Rivane Neuenschwander: Joe Carioca atSt. Louis Art Museum, Missouri, MO (2007), Forum 60: Rivane Neuenschwander atCarnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (2007), Black Box: Rivane Neuenschwander atHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2007), Superficial Resemblance at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2003), To/From: Rivane Neuenschwander atthe Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN (2002), Spell at Portikus, Frankfurt (2001).
The artist’s work was also featured in the 55th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, along with group shows at Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany, The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Denmark, Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Kunsthalle Wein in Austria, Stedelijk Museum in The Netherlands, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm, among many others.
Currently Neuenschwander’s work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Inhotim Centro de Arte Contemporânea in Brazil, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdamn, The Israel Museum, Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paulo, Seattle Art Museum, and the Walker Art Center, among others.
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Rivane Neuenschwander: Brasil de susto e sonho: um panorama na obra de Rivane Neuenschwander (Brazil of fear and dreams
Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil August 14 - November 2, 2025 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Tangolomango
Instituto Inhotim, Brazil October 19, 2024 - March 1, 2026 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: dream.lab
Kinder Kunst Labor, St. Pölten, Austria September 13, 2024 - February 23, 2025 -
The Objects We Choose, Curated by Pedro Alonzo
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York June 20 - July 31, 2024 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Wild Seeds
Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal September 20, 2022 - April 23, 2023 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: knife does not cut fire
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein November 12, 2021 - April 24, 2022 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Tropics: Damned, Orgasmic and Devoted
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York September 10 - October 24, 2020 -
Songs in the Dark
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York January 11 - February 20, 2020 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Children’s Biennale – Dreams & Stories
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany September 22, 2018 - February 24, 2019 -
Rivane Neuenschwander
14TH LA BIENNALE DE LYON September 20, 2017 - January 17, 2018 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: THE NAME OF FEAR
Whitechapel Gallery, London June 23 - October 25, 2015 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: The fever, the sewing box and a ghost.
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York May 9 - June 20, 2015Neuenschwander explores themes of childhood, memory and narrative through works across a diverse range of mediums including installation, video, painting and embroidery.Read more -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: MAL-ENTENDIDOS
MUSEU DE ARTE MODERNA DE SAO PAULO September 1 - December 14, 2014 -
Between the Lines
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York January 9 - February 8, 2014 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: AT A CERTAIN DISTANCE
MALMO KONSTHALL, MALMO, SWEDEN September 11 - November 14, 2010 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other
New Museum, New York June 23 - September 19, 2010 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: SUSPENSION POINT
South London Gallery, London October 3 - November 30, 2008 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: LIFE ON MARS: 55TH CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL
CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART, PITTSBURGH May 3, 2008 - January 11, 2009 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Other Stories and Stories of Others
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York September 7 - October 14, 2006Informed by the Neoconcrete movement of the 1970s in Brazil, Neuenschwander transforms the idea of narrative from an abstraction into concrete manifestations, creating discrete objects to be observed, considered, analyzed...Read more -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: ALWAYS A LITTLE FURTHER
51ST BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, VENICE, ITALY June 12 - November 6, 2005 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: CURRENTS 93
SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM, SAINT LOUIS, MO December 20, 2004 - March 20, 2005 -
RIVANE NEUENSCHWANDER: SUPERFICIAL RESEMBLANCE
PALAIS DE TOKYO, PARIS, FRANCE February 27 - April 20, 2003 -
Rivane Neuenschwander: Work of Days
SAO PAULO BIENNIAL October 3 - December 13, 1998
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Rivane Neuenschwander. knife does not cut fire
2022 Read more -
Rivane Neuenschwander: mal-entendidos (misunderstandings)
Rivane Neuenschwander, Adriano Pedrosa, 2014 Read more -
Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other
Text by Richard Flood, Paulo Herkenhoff, Lars Bang Larsen, Yasmil Raymond, Racheal Thomas., 2011Paperback, 244 pagesRead more
Publisher: EDITORA COBOGÓ
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11 in -
Rivane Neuenschwander: At A Certain Distance
2010Paperback, 80 pagesRead more
Publisher: MALMÖ KONSTHALL
ISBN: 9177041259
Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches -
Rivane Neuenschwander: XXIV Bienal de São Paulo
1998 Read more