Sonia Kacem

Selected Works

Biography

Born in Switzerland in 1985, Sonia Kacem lives and works between Geneva and Amsterdam. She graduated in 2011 at University of Art and Design of Geneva. With a keen sensitivity towards the ecology of materials and a deeply instinctive relationship with her chosen materials, Sonia Kacem creates environmental installations and sculptures that are visually straightforward, although utterly anti-monumental. Sourcing materials from refuse, her practice combines industrial elements, fabrics, ephemera and urban leftovers to investigate fanciful methods of construction and assembly. Both in her large-scale site-specific installations and wall compositions, the artist likes to play with the geometric properties of the medium in order to transform – through an array of spontaneous gestures – flat items into volumetric abstractions, and to reflect upon the metaphorical significance underlying any kind of material, either noble or poor. Sonia’s practice has been characterized by voluminous in situ, ephemeral or permanent sculptures and installations, which attempt to redefine abstraction, its formal identity and its narrative scope. The artist collects images, forms, stories, which she uses to manipulate ideas and materials, in order to deploy pallets of colors and shapes in which the body is brought to wander. Kacem further explores her ideas related to the rupture with figuration and its impact on a contemporary visual culture through an examination of cultural heritage as well as contemporary visual production. The artist often refers to Islamic art, based on an arborescence of geometric shapes (evacuating the representation of the body) and daily observations.

Gallery Exhibitions

Other Venues

Selected Press

21.05.2022
HARPER BAZAAR
Il senso del colore e dello spazio per Sonia Kacem
10.01.2022
FLASH ART
Sonia Kacem “Le Superflu” Haus Konstruktiv / Zurich
16.01.2020
MOUSSE
Sonia Kacem “Between the scenes” at Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
08/2014
FRIEZE
Sonia Kacem | Make, move, dispose, repeat

CV

Education

2009 – 2011

   MAV, HEAD Geneva

2006 – 2009

   BAV, HEAD Geneva

2008

Erasmus exchange Camberwell College of Arts, London

Selected solo exhibitions

2023

‘Jelliz & Gestes’, Selma Feriani Galley, Tunis

2022

‘3 pieghe, 4 archi e 1 rettangolo’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Milano

2021

‘Bruxelles, 2020/1’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich
‘Le Superflu’, Zurich Art Prize 2021, Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich
‘Sonia Kacem’, Fondation CAB, Brussels

2019

‘Between the Scenes’, Westfälische Kunstverein, Münster

2018

‘Did snow fall on the pyramids?’, T293, Rome

2017

‘Carcasse’, Centre culturel Suisse, Paris
‘RijksakademieOPEN 2017’, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam

2016

‘Carcasse’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich
‘Le Coup-gorge’, Public art installation, Ville de Nyon
‘Night Shift’, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva

2015

‘Le Flâneur’,T293, Naples
‘Loulou Replay’, Kunstverein Nürnberg
‘Bermuda Triangle’, Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen

2014

‘Loulou’, MAMCO, Geneva

2013

‘Petra’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich
‘Jump Cut’, La Rada, Locarno
‘Thérèse’, Salle Crosnier, Geneva
‘Dramaticule’, T293, Rome

2011

‘SULTAN 13395’, Piano Nobile, Geneva
‘Progress MI 07’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich

 

 

Selected group exhibitions

2024

‘SYMMETRICAL SPACE POPS’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich

2023

‘From the void came gifts from the cosmos’ The 35th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts

2022

‘Agora’, Centre Art Contemporain Genève
‘Abstrakt Gedacht’, Atelier Hermann Haller, Zurich

2021

‘Structures of Radical Will’, Fondation CAB Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France

2020

‘Figures On A Ground – Perspectives On Minimal Art’, Fondation CAB, Brussels

2019

‘Delirious’, Lustwarande – Platform for Contemporary Sculpture, Tilburg, Netherlands
‘AS A BUTTERFLY FOLDED IN A CATERPILLAR THAT WILL SOON UNFOLD’, Nicoletti Contemporary, London

2018

‘Artisti per Frescobaldi’, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan
‘Eloge du carburateur’, Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse
‘SIGNORI PREGO SI ACCOMODINO #3: Lia Pasqualino Noto’, Palermo, Italy

2017

‘Flatland / abstractions narratives #2’, Mudam Luxembourg
‘The working day’, Galerie Gregor Steiger, Zürich

2016

‘Flatland / abstractions narratives #1’, MRAC, Sérignan
Museion Prize, Bozen
‘Face to Face, a selection of emerging artists from the Ernesto Esposito Collection’, Palazzo Fruscione, Salerno, Italy
‘Conversation autour d’une collection’, Collection Petignat, Villa Bernasconi, Geneva
‘In a Good Shape’, Schwarzwaldallee, Basel
‘T293-in-residence’, Via Gabba 1, Milan
‘FACE TO FACE. A selection of international emerging artists from the Ernesto Esposito Collection’, Palazzo Fruscione, Salerno
‘Group show’, Galerie Gregor Steiger, Zürich

2015

‘Stipendium Vordemberge-Gildewart’, Kunsthaus CentrePasquArt, Biel
‘Unter 30 – Junge Schweizer Kunst’, Kunsthaus Glarus
‘Swiss Art Awards’, Basel
‘Faillir pouvoir prévoir’, Xippas, Geneva

2014

‘Enigma’, /V\inibar /-\rtistspace, Stockholm
‘Friday’, Autocenter, Berlin

2013

‘Material Conceptualism’, Aanant & Zoo, Berlin
‘Art of Living (i.e. Goodbye, Blue Monday)’, Chez Valentin, Paris
‘Swiss Art Awards 2013’, Basel
‘Time’, OSLO10, Basel

2012

‘The best of Times’, Galerie Gregor Staiger, Zurich
‘Brot & Salz’, Sommer & Khol, Berlin
‘Bourses’, Contemporary Art Centre, Geneva
‘Swiss Art Awards 2012’, Federal Art Contest and Kiefer Hablitzel Prize, Basel
‘mulhouse 012’, 10th edition of the Mulhouse contemporary art exhibition, Mulhouse

2011

‘ZONE ENTROPIE’, Villa du Parc, Annemasse
‘ZONE ENTROPIE’, Universal Cube, Leipzig

2010

‘Too early, too late. Activating the present, now’, BB4 – Bucharest Biennale 4, Bucharest

2009

‘D’îles et d’identités – Robinson et Vendredi à Genève’, LIYH, Geneva
‘8 électrons & 5 neutrons’, HEAD Bd Hélvétique 9, Geneva
‘Les hôtes de Samuel Von Brukenthal’, Samuel von Brukenthal Summer Residence, Avrig
‘DIE ART KLUBB’, 84 rue de Veyrier, Geneva

2008

‘Double Vue’, Art Chêne 08, 3rd Biennial of Art in the City, Geneva
‘APPARTEMENT PRE OFF’, 17 rue de Meyrin, Geneva
‘TicTac Interne’, Cité du Temps, Geneva