Vanessa Beecroft

Born in Genoa, Italy, in 1969. Lives in Los Angeles, California.

Vanessa Beecroft’s work has been shown internationally since 1993, and has shaped performance art, the representation of the female body, and the sociopolitical discussions of art. Her performances (titled VB, followed by the number) have been an ongoing practice for over twenty-five years. Presented across some of the world’s preeminent museums and major contemporary events, Beecroft’s performances highlight the tensions between nakedness and clothing, constraint and freedom, the collective and the individual, and human strength and weakness.

Vanessa Beecroft was one of the first artists to collaborate with fashion brands, starting in the 1990s, and since 2009 she has collaborated with musician and producer Kanye West. Now belonging to the popular culture and contemporary art canon, her work, also manifests a deep dialogue with the history of art and representations through the traditions of Europe and many cultures of the world. She is also an avid practitioner of photography, drawing, painting, and sculpture, using each medium to present perspectives on the body, while combining Renaissance influences with modern representation. Her art is an enthusiastic field of experimentation, rooted in history, revealing itself according to its own rules and expanding into the world in which it takes on many physiological and political tones to question the meaning of our existence as human beings.