NEWS
May 21–22, 2027
“Suzanne Bocanegra’s art is an antidote to the history-free, prepackaged world that threatens every day to overwhelm us. Her work is also beautiful.” —The New Yorker
In her new Walker commission, Suzanne Bocanegra examines motherhood as a political state of being. Deeply researched and delightfully labyrinthine, Motherhood sheds light on topics often deemed taboo: the history of infanticide, the creation of orphanages, the politics of infertility. In keeping with Bocanegra’s slide lecture style, the work features the young actor Judah Lang as the artist’s stand-in. With sharp humor and sharper insight, the piece exposes the cultural and institutional forces that act on one of the most central yet undervalued cornerstones of human life.
Walker Commission. Part of Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.
April 3–August 22, 2027
Judy Garland rocketed to international acclaim as Dorothy in the musical film Wizard of Oz (1939), and she continues to be remembered as an iconic Hollywood star. But years in the limelight took their toll on Garland and by the time she was cast in the film Valley of the Dolls (1967), she was navigating physical and mental health challenges. She would be dismissed from the project in its earliest stages, with the wardrobe tests serving as the only surviving evidence that she was ever part of the film. That footage captures rare, vulnerable human moments of Garland as she performs in front of the camera.
In the eight-channel installation Valley, artist Suzanne Bocanegra reimagines Garland’s wardrobe tests by inviting eight women to replicate Garland’s unease and self-conscious actions, melding their own personas with that of the actor. Featured in the work are poet Anne Carson; writer, performer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam; actor Kate Valk; vocalist Alicia Hall Moran; choreographer and dancer Deborah Hay; artist Joan Jonas; ballet dancer Wendy Whelan; and artist Carrie Mae Weems—many of whom have performed or exhibited at the Walker.
The large-scale installation offers a poignant and meditative experience, as each performer’s likeness is overlaid with Garland’s, creating a sense of connection and intimacy across time.
Part of Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.
March 18–19, 2027
8 PM
Motherhood is the fifth in a series of pieces that transform the artist lecture into a personal, deeply researched, theatrical event. Combining personal memoir and cultural history with art historical analysis, Motherhood explores the ways society values – or undervalues – the creation, nurturing and education of children, and the way social and political institutions shape our ideas about the value of motherhood. Presented as a slide lecture with actor Judah Lang performing as the artist, Motherhood touches on a wide range of topics including foundling homes, feminism, mother and child paintings, party planning through the ages, Susan B. Anthony, and nuns. And in the words of Bocanegra, “It will also be funny.”
January 13 – 31, 2027
How do we determine what’s honorable, and what’s not? In 2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra to create a work about the largest tapestry in their collection: a 16th-century Dutch masterpiece titled Honor. The result, directed by Geoff Sobelle, is a slyly witty hour-long performance impossible to categorize.
Performing in tandem with acclaimed actress Lili Taylor, Bocanegra weaves concepts of ownership, authenticity, cruelty, and feminism together with personal and collective histories. With droll humor and startling imagery, Honor poses profound questions about this double-edged virtue.
Presented in partnership with Under the Radar Festival
January 7–9, 2027
“An illuminating theatrical portrait of the mind of an artist at work.” —New York Times
Farmhouse Whorehouse begins on a small farm across the street from a brothel. The farm belongs to Suzanne Bocanegra’s grandparents, and the brothel is the Chicken Ranch, better known as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (of the eponymous musical and film). The performance plays out in Bocanegra’s signature “artist lecture” style. Sitting stage right, she feeds scripted lines via earpiece to an onstage orator—in this instance, actor Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Six Feet Under). Equipped with historical footage, a PowerPoint, and wit, the pair delivers a theatrical essay examining American notions of rural utopia and urban imagination.
The Walker exhibition Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley, a poignant and meditative large-scale video installation featuring eight actors, opens April 2027.
Part of Out There 2027 and Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.
November 19–21, 2026
Nov. 19, 20 - 8pm
Nov. 21 - 6pm
Dans un esprit joueur et curieux, la plasticienne Suzanne Bocanegra, s’amuse à tirer les fils du thème de l’honneur. En s’appuyant sur l’imagerie et les évocations de l’une des plus anciennes et imposantes tapisseries conservées au Metropolitan Museum de New York, l’actrice Lili Taylor (Arizona Dream, Six feet under…) attire notre attention, images à l’appui, sur d’infinis détails et détours.
Monday, June 22, 2026, 8:30pm
Internationaal Theater Amsterdam - Grote zaal
Suzanne Bocanegra weaves her personal story together with her interpretation of this sixteenth-century tapestry, revealing a rich tapestry of characters and narratives. The work comes alive in a dynamic mix of Bocanegra’s sharp cultural observations, personal reflections, colorful imagery projected on a large screen, and a compelling performance by actress, writer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam.
From Renaissance weaving to Bauhaus textiles, from the Spanish Inquisition to girl scout badges and Hansel and Gretel, art history, childhood memories, and feminist commentary, flow together seamlessly. Honor is witty, humourous, and unexpectedly moving, a performance about status, labor, and the question: "Who decides what honor really means?"
The performance Honor is one of the works personally selected by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, associate artist of Holland Festival 2026.
Tickets here
Thursday, April 30, 2026, 8:00pm
Roulette Intermedium
503 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Rerememberer (all the threads) is a translation of an old Danish peasant fabric into a performance / installation. Bocanegra applies the weaving instructions for a simple textile to sounds, actions, lighting, and staging, transforming a small, flat scrap of material into an hour of noise and unearthly atmosphere. Weavers codify their instructions on a 5 line staff – exactly how composers write music. The proportions of the thread count and the numerical ordering of the loom tie-up for the weaving pattern serve as the score for the entire installation, generating the music, the lighting and the placement in space.
Presented by Make Hauser & Wirth, ‘CRADLED’ opens 20 November at the gallery’s Downtown Los Angeles location. Conceived and curated by artist Suzanne Bocanegra and actor/producer Frances McDormand in collaboration with Shaker Museum (Chatham, NY), the exhibition expands on its 2024 staging in upstate New York. The Los Angeles presentation of ‘CRADLED’ explores—through objects, sound, and activations—the Shakers’ embrace of caregiving and community from cradle to grave.
‘CRADLED’ will be on view Saturdays and Sundays, 22 November 2025 through 4 January 2026.
RSVP to the opening activation on November 20, 6-9pm.
Thursday, September 18, 2025, 6:30 pm
Part of Hancher’s Infinite Dream Festival
Suzanne Bocanegra recounts threads of her family’s life on a Texas farm. Her tale unfolds as aural and visual memoir, weaving elements of art, design, and monologue into a startling, humorous performance. The narration comes from Bocanegra, but it is actress Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Six Feet Under) who mimes the emotions and breakthroughs to the audience. It’s a disquieting American story delivered at a remove that is—surprisingly—an unusual kind of intimacy.
Tickets here
Sept 3–6 at 7 pm
Sept 7 at 2 pm
Sept 9-13 at 7 pm
Sept 14 at 2 pm
“Peak lecture-performance in the age of the internet: hundreds of images and deftly intertwined stories that romp through time, inserting the personal into a broader cultural history with precision and wit.” – Claire Bishop, ARTFORUM
Jan 31, 2025 7:30 PM
Feb 1, 2025 7:30 PM
Performed by celebrated film actor Lili Taylor and centered on one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s greatest tapestries, Honor is a brilliant weave of musical and theatrical elements that emerge in surprising and delightful ways.
Exhibition open to the public September 15 - December 1, 2025, at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill in Kinderhook, NY.
Artists Frances McDormand and Suzanne Bocanegra have joined forces with Shaker Museum to present Cradled, a thought-provoking exhibition that explores the transcendent impact of the Shakers’ communal embrace from cradle to grave through objects, values, and inspired modern-day artistic expression. Through the curation of objects, soundscapes, lighting, ephemera, and experience, Cradled invites visitors to feel the communal embrace and take part in the literal and figurative mending and communal care that were central to Shaker values.
Hauser & Wirth
3pm & 7:30pm
FILM SCREENING: ‘FARMHOUSE/WHOREHOUSE AN ARTIST LECTURE BY SUZANNE BOCANEGRA STARRING LILI TAYLOR’
by Suzanne Bocanegra
starring Lili Taylor
1 hr 30 min
Honor, starring Lili Taylor and directed by Geoff Sobelle, is based on a 16th-century tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Honor,” which depicts 69 historical and allegorical figures who offer personal stories as moral lessons in honor and in dishonor. Bocanegra’s very close reading of the tapestry leads her to weave together such diverse topics as Carole King’s Tapestry album, tableau vivant, the founding of the Girl Scouts of America, Anni Albers, the Monkees, and the history of theater.
February 22–24, 2024
“Of the many lecture-performances I’ve seen over the past twenty years, few have been as exhilarating. … The finale was breathtaking and euphoric.” —Claire Bishop, Artforum (Best of 2022)
ASL interpretation is planned for Friday, February 23.
Part of Out There 2024.
The third lecture in a four-part series taking the stage at NYU Skirball this season, Bodycast is inspired by the two teenage years Bocanegra spent in a body cast due to scoliosis. Bodycast mines specific details of Bocanegra’s life to create a more general meditation on art-making and shifting ideals of feminine beauty.
Starring Ruth Negga (Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony nominee) and directed by Paul Lazar.
The second lecture in a four-part series taking the stage at NYU Skirball this season, When a Priest Marries a Witch tells a spellbinding tale set in the 1960s about a priest, an artist, and a young girl in Pasadena, Texas.
Oct 30: Farmhouse/Whorehouse
Tickets
Nov 27: When A Priest Marries a Witch
Tickets
Jan 29: Bodycast
Tickets
Apr 8: Honor
Tickets
Farmhouse/Whorehouse is the first of four lectures by Suzanne Bocanegra taking place throughout NYU Skirball’s 2023-24 Season.
Fri, Feb 10, 2023, 8 PM
$15 for members + students / $25 for nonmembers
This subversive performance by conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra masquerades as an artist talk but reveals her current fixation—and aesthetic engagement with—one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s greatest tapestries, the colossal Honor (from the series The Honors), measuring almost 19 by 25 feet. Weaving Bocanegra’s personal narrative with an artist’s interpretation of the 16th century tapestry which reveals a multitude of different characters and narratives, Honor features celebrated film and theater actor Lili Taylor in the title role of “The Artist.”
Friday, January 27, 2023 | 8:00pm-9:00pm
Moody Center for the Arts | Lois Chiles Studio Theater
Houston-born artist Suzanne Bocanegra presents an original "artist talk" performed by film and television actor Lili Taylor, with vocalists from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Centered on a sixteenth-century tapestry of the same name in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Honor weaves Bocanegra’s personal narrative with her interpretation of the historic tapestry, in turn revealing a multitude of different characters and stories.
July 12–December 11, 2022
Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, Gambier OH
Link here
In 1967 Judy Garland was cast in the film Valley of the Dolls, a story of three women undone by drugs and stardom on Broadway in the 1950s. An amazingly gifted performer, Garland had been exploited since she was a girl by the entertainment industry. At this point in her career she was known to be unpredictable and painfully fragile. She was fired soon after work on the film began.
Some of the only footage that remains of Garland’s participation in the film are her wardrobe tests, in which she models her costumes for the film. These wardrobe tests have no script, no scenario, no song. The movement and nervous chatter are her own. Garland had performed professionally from the age of 2, yet in this footage she appears awkward and uncomfortable, and that awkwardness makes her feel authentic and vulnerable. With the help of The Fabric Workshop and Museum, I recreated this footage, casting eight strong women artists that I admire in the role of Garland. Performers include poet Anne Carson, choreographer and dancer Deborah Hay, artist Joan Jonas, singer Alicia Hall Moran, author and actor Tanya Selvaratnam, actor Kate Valk, artist Carrie Mae Weems, and ballerina Wendy Whelan.
After Judy Garland was fired from the film, she took her wardrobe with her. She wore them in her concerts until her death of a barbiturate overdose two years later, bringing long-lasting notoriety to the iconic late-1960s costumes.
— Suzanne Bocanegra
April 29–30, 2022 at 7pm
MOCA members ticket release: Monday, April 18
General ticket release: Tuesday, April 19
This subversive performance by conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra masquerades as an artist talk but reveals her current obsession—and aesthetic engagement with—one of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s greatest tapestries, the colossal Honor (from the series The Honors), measuring almost 19 by 25 feet. Weaving Bocanegra’s personal narrative with an artist’s interpretation of the 16th century tapestry which reveals a multitude of different characters and narratives, Honor features celebrated film and theater actor Lili Taylor in the title role of The Artist.
Saturday, February 19, 2022
7 pm
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Starring Lili Taylor
Directed by Geoff Sobelle
This subversive work by conceptual artist Suzanne Bocanegra masquerades as an artist talk about one of The Met’s most important 16th-century tapestries. Featuring celebrated actor Lili Taylor in the role of the Artist, Honor weaves together Bocanegra’s personal narrative and her obsession with the colossal tapestry, revealing a multitude of different characters and stories as rich and complex as the work of art itself.
Tickets start at $25 (includes Museum admission).
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
5:00 p.m. CT
Register here: blantonmuseum.org/witch
In Suzanne Bocanegra’s theatrical takes on the standard “artist lecture,” an actor appears as Bocanegra, recounting significant moments in her artistic development. Part artist’s talk, part performance, part cultural history, this filmed version of Bocanegra’s 2010 lecture features actor Paul Lazar of New York’s legendary Wooster Group and Big Dance Theater. Lazar channels Bocanegra, describing her early life in Pasadena, Texas, in a tale incorporating Elvis, Abstract Expressionism, the pope, astronauts, the singing nun, and (obviously!) a witch. This one-time virtual screening is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley. A livestream Q&A with Bocanegra will follow the screening, moderated by Claire Howard, Blanton Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art
The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the 18 artists who will receive its 2021 awards in art. The art prizes and purchases honor both established and emerging artists. The award winners were chosen from a group of 125 artists who had been invited to submit work. The members of this year’s award committee were: Catherine Murphy (Chair), Nicole Eisenman, Ann Hamilton, Philip Pearlstein, Judy Pfaff, Joel Shapiro, Amy Sillman, Kiki Smith, and Terry Winters.
Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley
June 27, 2021 - September 19, 2021
Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley is organized by the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
Organized by Claire Howard, Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art
May 12, 2020
Multimedia and performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra joins The Brooklyn Rail for New Social Environment #39, with host and Artseen editor Amanda Gluibizzi. They discuss the theatrics of religion, honor groups (and when theater is honorable), fashion, performing Beckett in quarantine, and much more. The New Social Environments provide a place to have vibrant conversations in a time of great physical distancing.
On April 8, 2020, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation approved the awarding of Guggenheim Fellowships to a diverse group of 175 scholars, artists, and writers. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants in the Foundation’s ninety-sixth competition.