Eleanor Antin: Persona

Diane Rosenstein Gallery announces Persona, a focused solo exhibition of photographs and works on paper by iconic conceptual artist Eleanor Antin. The works on view, created between 1971-1977, depict the artist in performance as her personae The Ballerina, The King, The Nurse, and Eleanor Nightingale. This is Antin’s third solo exhibition with our gallery.  

 

Eleanor Antin, who is based in San Diego, uses fictional characters, autobiography, and theatrical narrative to examine the ways that history takes shape, and also to scrutinize the role that visual representation plays in that process. In her practice Antin alludes to the social and psychological pressures of ‘modern-day’ women, in the guise of an extreme female archetype. This show reflects on recurring feminist alter egos or performative identities in her work to engage the trajectory of themes in her oeuvre.

 

A key figure emerging from the Conceptual art movements of the 1970s, Antin is today an octogenarian artist who is among the world's leading Feminist artists. Her ground-breaking practice spans five decades and has covered themes surrounding identity, gender, auto-biography, class and social structures. A multi-disciplinary approach includes installation, painting, drawing, writing, film, and most notably photography and performance.

 

On view will be photographs from I Dreamed I Was A Ballerina! (1973), 100 Boots (1971-1973), Nurse Eleanor, (1975), The King of Solana Beach (1974-75), and The Nightingale Family Album (1977). Rare watercolors, stage sets from the Ghost Ballroom series, will be shown for the first time in a decade. 

 

A major retrospective was announced by The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (MUDAM), curated by Bettina Steinbrügge, opening September 26, 2025.

 

Over the last 50 years, Eleanor Antin (USA, b. 1935) has performed and exhibited her work internationally. Her numerous solo exhibitions include Time's Arrow at LACMA, 2019 (traveling to the Art Institute of Chicago). In 2023, History Tales. Fact and Fiction in History Pictures, was at Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna and Roman Allegories & Greek Mythologies, Richard Saltoun Gallery, in Rome, IT. Selected recent solo exhibitions include Multiple Occupancy: Eleanor Antin's "Selves", curated by Emily Liebert, ICA, Boston, MA (2014); Eleanor Antin: Historical Takes, San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), CA (2008); Eleanor Antin: Real Time Streaming, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK and Mead Gallery, Warwick, UK (2001); Eleanor Antin Retrospective, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (1999); and Eleanor Antin: Selections from the Angel of Mercy, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1997).  In 1975, her seminal exhibition 100 Boots was debuted at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. As a performance artist, Eleanor Antin has appeared in venues all around the world, including the 37th International Art Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Italy (2005) and The Sydney Opera House, Australia (2002). Her work is included in numerous important public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; the Jewish Museum; LACMA; The Hammer; The Morgan Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, amongst others.