This is Antin's first major retrospective – and the first ever in Europe – since 1999 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The exhibition highlights the continued relevance and influence of her work from the late 1960s till today, when issues of power imbalance and collective and individual representation have taken on renewed urgency. The exhibition is curated by Bettina Steinbruëgge.
Eleanor Antin is a seminal figure in the history of performance art and is considered a pioneer of conceptual and feminist art over the last six decades. She moves freely between various media, including live and installation art, theatre, independent film, photography, video, drawing, painting, and writing. Beginning as a conceptual artist in the early 1960s, Antin has played a formative role in the expansion of feminist art, utilizing non-traditional narrative forms such as biography, autobiography, and alter-egos or personas. Her nomadic approach to these different media has allowed her to explore core issues and ideas that primarily engage her: explorations of self, gender, race, class, social structures, language, history, culture, and Jewish identity.
Initially developing her practice amid New York's artistic and literary avant-garde, Antin moved to San Diego in 1969. There, she became deeply involved with the local feminist movement and participated in activities at the Woman's Building, an arts and education center in Los Angeles. She was also a key figure within the vibrant community of leftist artists and writers affiliated with the University of California, San Diego, where she taught from 1975 until 2002.
She has had numerous solo exhibitions, including at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and a major retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1999 which traveled to the Washington University Museum in Saint Louis before touring the UK. In 2009, Antin returned to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art with a solo exhibition titled “Classical Frieze”. Other recent solo presentations include “Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes” at the San Diego Art Museum and “Helen’s Odyssey” and Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's "Selves"', ICA, Boston in 2014. Antin has participated in innumerable group exhibitions including documenta 12 in Kassel, in 2007, WHACK: Art and the Feminist Revolution in Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver, and elles@centrepompidou in Paris. Antin is represented in major public collections including those of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum, Museion, Musée d'art Contemporain de Bolzano, Italie, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and the Centre Georges Pompidou.
This is her first major retrospective since 1999 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, – and the first ever in Europe – presents Antin’s œuvre in full breadth. The exhibition highlights the continued relevance and influence of her work from the late 1960s till today, when issues of power imbalance and collective and individual representation have taken on renewed urgency.
Erna Hecey presented three large solo exhibitions in her Brussels gallery between 2005 “100 Boots” (selected as one of the five best exhibitions in Belgium in 2006), “Empire of Signs” (2007), and “Historical Takes” (2009-2010). Her work was also featured in several group exhibitions at the gallery, including “Strange, Familiar and Unforgotten” (2005), “Drawing in Expanded Field” (2009), and in Cologne at Temporary Gallery, with Marcel Broodthaers, Peter Friedl, and Ryan Gander 2010, as well in numerous artfairs, in Paris, Berlin and Shanghai. Upon the relaunch of the Luxembourg gallery, Antin was part of “Thinking Ahead” the re-opening exhibition in 2018. In 2022 Erna Hecey presented her 1987 film, “From the Archives of Modern Art,” at Offscreen, Paris.
MUDAM Musée d'Art Contemporain du Luxembourg
26 September 2025 – 8 February 2026
3 Park Dräi Eechelen
1499 Luxembourg
