Nicola L.: I Am The Last Woman Object

Museion – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bolzano present a retrospective dedicated to the work of celebrated French artist Nicola L. (b. 1932, Morocco; d. 2018, US). Encompassing sculpture, performance, painting, drawing, collage, and film, the exhibition offers an unprecedented opportunity to experience the full breadth of her multidisciplinary oeuvre. “Nicola L.:I Am The Last Woman Object” is the artist’s first museum exhibition in Italy and the most expansive presentation of her work to date.

From the 1960s onwards, Nicola L. explored softness as a form of resistance. Often seen in the context of Pop Art, Nouveau Réalisme, feminism, and design, her practice bridged political activism, cosmology, spirituality, sexuality, and environmentalism. The artist dedicated much of her life to softening domestic and urban spaces, driven by a desire to connect with others and ever-changing environments.

Nicola L.’s large-scale, anthropomorphic sculptures, designed to function as furniture, are the most famous examples of her playful response to the everyday politics of the home interior, particularly the role of women within it. Blurring the lines between art and life, the artist illuminated spaces with lamps shaped like eyes and lips, and created an extensive series of ‘loungers’ in soft, pliable forms resembling giant human figures, feet, and hands.

A selection of these works will be shown alongside archival performance documentation, demonstrating the artist’s overarching aim of opening up new performative spaces for collective action. The retrospective showcases over eighty works from five decades, displayed in an exhibition space designed by Studio Manuel Raeder.