Marguerite Humeau

"How would it feel for us as humans to truly merge into the biosphere? How do we celebrate the persistence of life as a whole, what do we learn from the beings on Earth that have already adapted to our post-climate world? Could they be our guides? How do we reconnect our lands to their pasts, their presents and their futures?"

—Marguerite Humeau, Artist

Marguerite Humeau’s work stages the crossing of great distances in time and space, transitions between animal and mineral, and encounters between personal desires and natural forces. The work explores the possibility of communication between worlds and the means by which knowledge is generated in the absence of evidence or through the impossibility of reaching the object of investigation.

Humeau weaves factual events into speculative narratives, therefore enabling unknown, invisible, extinct forms of life to erupt in grandiose splendor. Combining prehistory, occult biology, and science fiction in a disconcerting spectacle, her works resuscitate the past and conflate subterranean and subcutaneous, all the while updating the quest genre for the information age.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Marguerite Humeau (b. 1986, Cholet, France) lives and works in London. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2011. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2021); Jeu de Paume, Paris (2020); Kunstverein Hamburg (2019); Museion, Bolzano (2019); New Museum, New York (2018); Tate Britain, London (2017); Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2017); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2017); Nottingham Contemporary (2016); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016). Humeau’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022); ‘The Milk of Dreams’, 59th Venice Biennale (2022); Kunsthalle Basel (2021); the Istanbul Biennial (2019); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); MAMVP, Paris (2019); the High Line, New York (2017); Château de Versailles, France (2017); Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen (2017); FRAC Midi- Pyrénées, Toulouse, France (2017); Serpentine Galleries, London (2014); and Victoria and Albert Museum, Sculpture Gallery, London (2014).

Humeau joined Black Cube’s Artist Fellowship in 2021. Humeau is represented by White Cube and C L E A R I N G New York/Brussels/Los Angeles.