JavaScript is required
Download CV

Brief Biography

Fiona Tan is a visual artist and filmmaker. She is best known for her skilfully crafted video and film installations, in which explorations of memory, identity and the role of visual images are key. Her installations and photographic works have been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in international venues. She has written and directed to date three feature length films. Recent solo exhibitions took place at Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Museum der Moderne Salzburg and Kunsthalle Krems, Austria, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Museum für Modern Kunst, Frankfurt, Mudam, Luxembourg, Nasjonalmuseet Oslo, The BALTIC, Gateshead, UK, MAXXI, Rome and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. With her solo presentation Disorient, Tan represented The Netherlands at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. Her work has been shown at various international group shows including in the São Paulo Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennale, Documenta IX, Istanbul Biennale. Her work is represented in numerous international public and private collections including the Tate Modern, London, the Guggenheim Museum New York, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Neue National Galerie, Berlin and the MCA, Chicago.

Selected Exhibitions Download CV

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025

  • Monomania, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

2024

  • Footsteps, Museum of the Moving Image, New York

2023

  • Footsteps, Frith Street Gallery, London
  • Raamwerk, Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar
  • Suri, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo

2022

  • Mountains and Molehills, Eye Filmmuseum Amsterdam [catalogue]

2020-21

  • With the other hand/Mit der anderen Hand, Museum der Moderne Salzburg & Kunsthalle Krems, Austria [catalogue]

2020

  • Archive/Ruins, Peter Freeman Inc., New York [catalogue]

2019

  • l’Archive des Ombres / Shadow Archive, Musée des arts contemporains, Grand-Hornu [catalogue]
  • GAAF, Museum Ludwig, Cologne [catalogue]
  • Goraiko, Sprengel Museum, Hannover [catalogue]

2018

  • Elsewhere, Frith Street Gallery, London

2017

  • Ascent, De Pont Museum, Tilburg [catalogue]
  • Geography of Time, Tel Aviv Museum of Art [catalogue]
  • Nellie, IMA, Brisbane

2016

  • Geography of Time, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt / Mudam, Luxembourg [catalogue]
  • Ascent, Izu Photo Museum, Shizuoka-ken [catalogue]

2015

  • Inventory & Ghost Dwellings, Frith Street Gallery, London
  • Depot, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK [catalogue]
  • Geography of Time, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo [catalogue]

2014

  • Terminology, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo / National Museum of Art, Osaka [catalogue]
  • Options & Futures, Rabo Kunst Zone, Utrecht
  • Nellie and Photo Works, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo

2013

  • Inventory, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia / MAXXI, Rome [catalogue]
  • Ellipsis, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa [catalogue]
  • Point of Departure, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen / Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastian [catalogue]
  • Cloud Island I, Project for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010, Benesse Art Site, Inujima

2012

  • Disorient, Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art
  • Vox Populi London, The Photographers Gallery, London [catalogue]
  • Point of Departure, CAAC, Sevilla [catalogue]

2011

  • Vox Populi Switzerland, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris
  • Rise and Fall, Sackler Galleries, Washington DC / Gallery l’Uqam, Montreal [catalogue]

2010

  • Rise and Fall, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland / Vancouver Art Gallery [catalogue]
  • Cloud Island and other new works, Frith Street Gallery, London
  • Provenance and other works, Peter Freeman Inc., New York
  • Coming Home, SCAF Foundation, Sydney [catalogue]
  • Disorient and other works, Museum voor moderne kunst, Arnhem

2009

  • Disorient – Fiona Tan, Dutch Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale [catalogue]

2008

  • Provenance, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam [catalogue]
  • Countenance, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts
  • Island, MAP Birger Jarlsgatan, Stockholm

2007

  • A Lapse of Memory, Royal Institute of British Architects, London
  • 80 Tage, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
  • Time and Again, Lund Konsthall, Lund [catalogue]
  • Mirror Maker, Pori Art Museum, Finland [catalogue]

2006

  • Fiona Tan, Art Gallery of York University,
  • Toronto (cat.)
  • Mirror Maker, Kunsthallen Brandts Klædefabrik, Odense / Landesgalerie, Linz / Kunstmuseum, Bergen (Norway) [catalogue]
  • Short Voyages, Frith Street Gallery, London

2005

  • Correction, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York / Hammer Museum, Los Angeles [catalogue]
  • Countenance, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford [catalogue]
  • Fiona Tan, Baltic Art Center, Visby [catalogue]
  • Saint Sebastian, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal [catalogue]
  • Saint Sebastian, Anna Schwartz Gallery (Melbourne Festival), Melbourne [catalogue]

2004

  • Correction, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago [catalogue]
  • Fiona Tan, IASPIS Gallery, Stockholm
  • Fiona Tan, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo

2003

  • New and Recent Works, Frith Street Gallery, London
  • Akte 1, Akademie der Künste, Berlin / Museum De Pont, Tilburg [catalogue]

2002

  • Akte 1, Villa Arson Nice [catalogue]

2001

  • Film and Video Works, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo
  • Matrix 144, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
  • Rain, Galerie Elisabeth Kaufmann, Zurich
  • Recent Works, Galerie Michel Rein, Paris

2000

  • Lift, Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam
  • Scenario, Kunstverein Hamburg [catalogue]
  • Linnaeus’ Flower Clock, Galleria Massimo de Carlo, Milan

1999

  • Cradle, Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam

1998

  • J.C. van Lanschot Prijs, SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst, Ghent

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

  • Nineteenth Century Photography Now, J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Coup de ville, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium
  • Memories #2, Fotografisk Center, Copenhagen

2023

  • New Horizons, Centraal Museum Utrecht
  • Sisters & Brothers, Lentos Museum, Linz
  • Reaching for the Stars, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
  • Double Horizon, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France

2022

  • Voyages Imaginaires, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
  • Frequencies of Tradition, Incheon Art Platform, Korea, Kadist, San Francisco
  • Before . Between . Beyond, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Switzerland

2021

  • Continuously Contemporary, Kunstmuseum Basel
  • Memory of the future, MUSAC, León
  • Assembly, New Media Gallery, Vancouver
  • Errata: Collecting Entanglements and Embodies Histories, MAIIAM, Chiang Mai, Thailand
  • Frequencies of Tradition, Guangzhou Time Museum, Guangzhou

2020

  • Push the limits, Fondazione Merz, Turin
  • The Cindy Sherman Effect, Kunstforum, Vienna

2019

  • Heteroglossia, How Art Museum, Shanghai
  • Vrijheid, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle
  • From the cave, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
  • Art Unlimited, Art Basel

2018

  • The Shape of Time, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
  • Landfall and Departure: Epilogue, Nanaimo Art Gallery, Canada
  • Face to Face, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
  • True Luxury, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
  • 7 Questions for Asia, 6th Kuandu Biennale, Taipei

2017

  • Dioramas, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
  • The Very Impress of the Object, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
  • Ageing Pride, Belvedere Museum, Vienna
  • Countercurrents, Samstag Museum, Adelaide
  • Versus Rodin: bodies across space and time, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
  • Ce qui est is, Caen Museum of Fine Art, Normandy

2016

  • Trans-Pacific Transmissions, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada
  • Tempest, Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
  • Collecting, Classifying: The Archive: The Archive, The Document and Beyond, CAAC, Sevilla
  • The Third Mediterranean Biennale, Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, Sakhnin
  • Underway, Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand
  • Intersections, Audain Art Museum, Whistler

Selected Awards

  • 2019 Spectrum International Prize for Photography, Stiftung Niedersachsen
  • 2017 Amsterdam Prize for Art
  • 2016-17 Getty Artist-in-Residence Fellowship, Los Angeles
  • 2007 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 07, London/Frankfurt (nominee)
  • 2004 Infinity Award for Art, New York
  • 2004 Artes Mundi Prize, Cardiff (nominee)
  • 2003 IASPIS grant and residency, Stockholm
  • 2001-02 DAAD scholarship and residency, Berlin
  • 1998 J.C. van Lanschot Prize for Visual Arts, Belgium/ Netherlands
  • 1997 Prize for the best national debut film, Netherlands Film Festival
  • 1996 Prix de Rome, Film/Video (nominee)

Selected Museum Collections

  • 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
  • Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway
  • British Museum, London
  • Centre Pompidou, Paris
  • De Pont Museum, Tilburg
  • Don Rubell Family Collection, Miami
  • Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, Miami
  • Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
  • Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, France
  • FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) Lorraine, Metz
  • FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille
  • FRAC (Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain) Rhône-Alpes, Villeurbanne
  • Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague
  • Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
  • Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
  • Kramlich Collection, US
  • Kupferstich Kabinett, Staatliche Sammlungen Dresden
  • LVMH Collection, Paris
  • Mudam, Luxembourg
  • Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
  • Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León
  • Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  • Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
  • Museet for samtidskunst, Oslo
  • National Museum of Art, Osaka
  • National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
  • Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
  • New Museum for Contemporary Art, New York
  • Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
  • Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
  • Sammlung Goetz, Munich
  • Schaulager, Basel
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
  • Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
  • Taipei Art Museum, Taipei
  • Tate Collection, London
  • Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography

Colophon

Design: Mainly Afternoon

Development: Parabol Studio