Vivian Suter

Suter was born in Buenos Aires. Her mother, Elisabeth Wild, was a noted collage artist. At the age of 12, Suter moved to Basel, Switzerland with her family.[1]

In the 1970s she exhibited in a group show at Stampa gallery in Basel, Switzerland.[2] In 1981, she was part of a group exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel.[2] In 1982 she moved to a former coffee plantation in the rainforest of Panajachel, Guatemala.[3][4][5] Suter attracted little critical attention between until 2011, when the curator Adam Szymczyk contacted her to recreate the 1981 group show at the Kunsthalle Basel.[2] Since 2011 she has held numerous significant solo shows in European and North American galleries and museums.[2] Vivian Suter has been awarded the Swiss Grand Award for Art / Prix Meret Oppenheim 2021 by the Federal Office of Culture.

Suter paints in a wall-less open air studio attached to her home.[6] She has been known to use non-traditional materials in her paintings, such as fish glue, volcanic material, soil, botanical matter, and house paint, some of which are reflective of her local environment.[3][4]

Her work is included in the collections of the Tate,[7] the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw,[8] and the Kunstmuseum Luzern.

• 2017: Jewish Museum, New York[9][10]
• 2017: Documenta 14, Kassel[4]
• 2018: Vivian Suter and Elizabeth Wild, The Power Plant, Toronto[11]
• 2019: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston[12]
• 2019: Tate Liverpool[5]
• 2020: TinTin's Garden, Camden Arts Centre[13][14][15]
• 2021: Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid[16]
• 2021: Kunstmuseum Luzern[17]
• 2023: Secession Building, Vienna[18]