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Bani Abidi (MFA 1999) has been working with the moving image for the past two decades. She has consistently blurred the edges between fiction and fact while gleaning from the dark absurdities of everyday life. Her staged scenes and anonymous characters struggle with enacting small gestures of resistance within broader dynamics of state power and nationalism. Abidi, who also draws and photographs, uses humor in all its gravity and firmly believes in the agency of laughter.
Abidi's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2021); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2019); Sharjah Art Foundation (2019); Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2017); Kunsthaus Hamburg (2016); Gandhara Art Space, Karachi (2016); Dallas Contemporary (2015); Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany (2014); and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, United Kingdom (2011), among others. Her work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland (2021); 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2021); 13th Shanghai Biennial (2020); Lahore Biennale (2018); Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany (2017); Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi (2016); Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, United Kingdom (2016); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015); Latvia Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga (2015); Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2014); 8th Berlin Biennale (2014); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2012); Kochi-Muziris Biennial (2012); 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012); dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); Devi Art Foundation, New Dehli (2012); ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2011); 10th Lyon Biennale, France (2009); 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008); Singapore Biennale (2006); and Asia Society, New York (2006), among others.
Abidi's work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York, British Museum, London; Tate Modern, London; Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Devi Arts Foundation, Gurugram, India; and Sharjah Art Foundation, among others.
Presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and SAIC Alumni Engagement.
View the Bani Abidi SAIC Flaxman Library Resource Guide for additional information about the artist.
