Mai Thu Perret

Mai-Thu Perret is a Swiss multidisciplinary artist born in Geneva in 1976. Working across sculpture, painting, ceramics, textiles, installation, performance, film, and writing, she explores feminism, utopian communities, modernist design, mythology, and the relationship between art and everyday life.Perret studied English literature at the University of Cambridge before attending the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York. Her literary background plays a central role in her practice, with fictional narratives often providing the framework for her exhibitions and individual works.Since 1999, Perret has developed The Crystal Frontier, an ongoing project centred on a fictional group of women who leave conventional society to establish an autonomous commune in the New Mexico desert. Through paintings, ceramics, furniture, textiles, clothing, publications, and other objects attributed to the commune, she examines alternative forms of social organisation while challenging distinctions between fine art, craft, design, and functional objects.Drawing on influences including the Bauhaus, Constructivism, feminist literature, avant-garde theatre, mysticism, and popular culture, Perret combines historical references with contemporary political and social concerns. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including MAMCO Geneva, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Renaissance Society, and Haus Konstruktiv. Her works are held in major public collections, including SFMOMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center, and the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art.