Miriam Cahn

Miriam Cahn's journey in the art world has been marked by accolades and recognition, including the 14th Rubens Prize from the city of Siegen in 2022, the Oberrheinischer Kunstpreis Offenburg, the Basler Kunstpreis, the Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis Berlin, and the Ströher Preis Frankfurt/Main. 

Biography of Miriam Cahn

Miriam Cahn is a Swiss artist born in Basel in 1949. Today, she resides and creates her mesmerizing works in the tranquil town of Stampa, Switzerland. 

From 1968 to 1973, she studied at Grafikfachklasse Gewerbeschule Basel. 

Miriam Cahn gained international recognition through a sequence of three exceptional opportunities: her participation in Documenta 7 in 1982 (where she withdrew her work in protest), a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, curated by director Jean-Christophe Ammann in 1983, and a solo showcase at the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984, representing Switzerland.

Cahn's artistic journey is punctuated by a series of significant solo exhibitions that have made an indelible mark on the global art landscape. Her notable solo exhibitions include 'ME AS HAPPENING,' first presented at Kunsthal Charlottenborg in 2020 and subsequently in a new iteration at The Power Plant, Toronto, in 2021.

Other exhibitions encompass "Fremd das fremde" at Palazzo Castelmur (Stampa, 2021), Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing (2020), "I AS HUMAN" at Kunstmuseum Bern (2019), which traveled to Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019) and the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2019), and Kunsthaus Bregenz (2019), among others.

Miriam Cahn's Art Style

Influenced by performance art and the feminist movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Cahn's artistic development in the 1980s involved the incorporation of large, bold drawings featuring warships, televisions, fighter jets, and other symbols of seemingly male-dominated imagery.

She frequently used her body as an instrument to perform the act of drawing. The performative element is as significant as the physicality through which her work unfolds. The body serves not only as the subject of contemplation but also as a medium for the artist. In this context, the artist reshapes observed images into mental representations through a suitable medium for portrayal, conveying and emphasizing her unique perspective on the subject matter.

Decades later, at the age of 50, she made a significant shift in her artistic practice by departing from the monumental drawings for which she was renowned, and embracing an equally intuitive approach to painting. This transition represented a direct evolution and innovation resulting from 30 years of drawing and performance. In 1994, Cahn started incorporating color into her work, drawn to the formal and psychological impact of mass media imagery and its gradual ubiquity.