Tacita Dean
British
Tacita Dean is a British European artist born in 1965 in Canterbury. Based between Berlin and Los Angeles, where she served as Artist in Residence at the Getty Research Institute in 2014–2015, Dean has built an international reputation for her deeply evocative work rooted in the poetics of time, place, and the materiality of film.Art critic Adrian Searle has described Dean’s work as being guided by a profound sensitivity to history, atmosphere, and light—qualities that define not only the visual language of her films but also her broader practice. Subtle yet ambitious, her work explores the essence of the film medium itself, engaging with the “truth of the moment” and the unique sensibility of the individual viewer.Dean has received numerous prestigious accolades throughout her career. These include an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts Helsinki (2024), the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award from the Royal Geographical Society (2019), the Kurt Schwitters Prize (2009), the Hugo Boss Prize from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2006), and the Sixth Benesse Prize at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005).Her recent solo exhibitions speak to the continued relevance and resonance of her work. In 2024, she was featured at the Menil Collection in Houston; in 2023, at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection in Paris; in 2022, at MUDAM in Luxembourg and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; and in 2021, at Kunstmuseum Basel. Earlier exhibitions include EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art (2020), the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and the Serralves Museum in Porto (2019), and, notably in 2018, a major trilogy of exhibitions staged across the Royal Academy of Arts, the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery in London—an unprecedented collaboration between the institutions.Expanding her practice beyond the gallery, Dean designed the sets and costumes for The Dante Project, a collaborative ballet inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, choreographed by Wayne McGregor with music by Thomas Adès. The production premiered in October 2021 at the Royal Opera House in London.A defining moment in Dean’s career came in 2011 with FILM, her contribution to Tate Modern’s Unilever Series. Installed in the museum’s vast Turbine Hall, FILM marked the beginning of her campaign to preserve photochemical film—a medium she continues to champion as a vehicle for truth, memory, and artistic authenticity.