Aleksandra Mir (born 1967) is a Swedish-American contemporary artist known for creating works that integrate elements of art, science, and cultural history. Over a three-decade career, she has exhibited worldwide, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Venice Biennale, and her work is held in major public collections such as the Tate, Moderna Museet, Kunsthaus Zürich, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
She employs anthropological methods such as archival research, oral history, and fieldwork in a practice that spans drawing, collage, performance, and large-scale public projects, combining intellectual rigor with striking visual impact.
Work In First Woman on the Moon (1999), Mir converted a Dutch beach into a moonscape for one day with the help of bulldozers.Lars Bang Larsen , First Woman on the Moon, Frieze, London, #50, January 2000Will Bradley , Life and Times: Aleksandra Mir, Frieze, Issue 75, 2003Nancy Spector , All the World..., Frieze, Issue 98, London, April 2006 The video of this event has been presented at multiple venues,Jeroen Junte, Kunstenares Mir landt op strand, De Volkskrant, Amsterdam, 27 August 1999Tim Griffin, Openings: Aleksandra Mir, Artforum, NYC, February 2003 at the International Space University, Strasbourg Lecturers , International Space University, Strasbourg, 2015 and at the UK Space Conference, Liverpool, 2015.Speakers, UK Space Conference, Liverpool, 2015
The How Not to Cookbook, (Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, 2009 and Rizzoli, NYC 2010) collected advice from 1,000 home cooks from around the world who explained what not to do in the kitchen.Alex Renton, Never boil and avocado, and other handy tips, The Times, 20 August 2009
In 2002, Mir painted the Mandela Way T-34 Tank pink with Cubitt Artists.
For Newsroom 1986–2000 (2007), Mir with a group of assistants copied 240 NYC tabloid covers in felt-tip marker and mounted them in an ever-revolving installation to simulate the daily workings of a Manhattan newsroom.Steven Stern , Newsroom, Frieze, #115, London, May 2008Simon Houpt, Yesterday's front page turns into today's art, The Globe and Mail, Toronto, 22 October 2007Roberta Smith, New York Stories: Art Torn Screaming From the Headlines, Then Hung on Walls, New York Times, 20 October 2007gninja , Review of "Newsroom 1986 – 2000": What Is Roberta Smith Going on About?, Art(h)ist'ry, 20 October 2007Jen Schwarting, Aleksandra Mir Newsroom 1986–2000, The Brooklyn Rail, NYC, November 2007James Reinl, 9/11 art and the 'Course of Empire' , Al Jazeera, NYC, 10 September 2015 Mir has created a series of large scale murals using only Sharpie marker pens.Johanna Hofleitner, Albertina: Zeichnungen zimmern, Die Presse, Vienna, 21 May 2015
In Triumph she collected 2529 trophies from the general public of Sicily and exhibited them all in one installation at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2009). It traveled to the South London Gallery for the London Olympics in 2012.Catherine Gaffney, Going for Gold: Aleksandra Mir investigates our relationship with the trophy, itsnicethat, London, July 2012
Mir has created Plane Landing (2003), a real size helium inflatable jet plane, meant not to fly, but to hover above the ground as "a sculpture of a jet plane in a permanent state of landing".Aidan Dunne, A Sligo group show dreams big and succeeds, The Irish Times, Dublin, 10 September 2015 In 2023 Kunsthaus Zurich acquired the work for its permanent collection, having previously staged it at the tarmac of the Zurich airport.
Mir's Dream and Promise collages (2009) combine antique religious and modern scientific imagery into a new fantastical reality. The print series (2025) reproduces an aged authentic patina and the imprint of the artist’s hand-crafted marks.
Selected exhibitions
Solo
2021–22: Mediterranean, Inhotim, Belo Horizonte 2019: The Pre-Presidential Library of the United States, Hayward Gallery, London 2017: Space Tapestry: Faraway Missions, Tate Liverpool 2017: Space Tapestry: Earth Observation & Human Spaceflight, Modern Art Oxford 2014: Drawing Room, Drawing Room, London 2013: The Space Age, M – Museum Leuven 2011: The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2009: Triumph, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 2006: Switzerland and Other Islands, Kunsthaus Zurich
Group
2024: Images, Vevey 2023: Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu 2022: New Acquisitions, Moderna Museet, Stockholm 2020: Topologia Salvaje, Colección Jumex, Mexico City 2018: The Artist is Present, YUZ Museum, Shanghai 2013: Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre 2012: Print/Out, MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2009: Making Worlds, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice 2004: Whitney Biennial, New York
Publications Mir has published numerous artists books, exhibition catalogues and magazine titles in collaboration with other artists, editors and publishers and under her own imprint, the Retrospective Press. 2026: Plane Landing Vevey, Aleksandra Mir, Images Vevey / Retrospective Press, London 2023: Freddie on the Plinth, Aleksandra Mir & Irena Sedlecká, Retrospective Press, London 2022: BAD Reviews: an Artists' Book by 150 Artists, eds. Aleksandra Mir & Tim Griffin, Retrospective Press, London 2019: The Pre-Presidential Library of the United States, Aleksandra Mir, Retrospective Press, London 2017: We Can't Stop Thinking about the Future: Artist Aleksandra Mir Speaks with the Space World, Strange Attractor Press, London / MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2013: The Space Age, Aleksandra Mir & Martin Herbert, M – Museum Leuven / Sternberg Press, Berlin 2010: The How Not to Cookbook, 2nd Edition, eds. Aleksandra Mir, Mareike Dittmer, Pablo León de la Barra, et al., Rizzoli International Publications, NYC 2009: The How Not to Cookbook, 1st Edition, eds. Aleksandra Mir, Mareike Dittmer, Pablo León de la Barra, et al., the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh 2008: Triumph, Aleksandra Mir, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König / Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 2007: Love Stories, Aleksandra Mir, Fundacion NMAC, Vejer de la Frontera 2007: Sicilian Pavilion, Aleksandra Mir, Fondazione Sambuca, Palermo 2007: Gravity: The Eternal Countdown, Aleksandra Mir & Ken Hollings, The Arts Catalyst, London 2007: Newsroom 1989–2000, Aleksandra Mir, Mary Boone Gallery, NYC 2007: LA: A Geography of Modern Art, Aleksandra Mir & Justin Beal, Printed Matter, NYC 2007: The Big Umbrella, Aleksandra Mir, Galerie Laurent Godin / Onestar Press 2006: Switzerland and Other Islands, Aleksandra Mir, Kunsthaus Zurich / Edition Fink, Zurich 2006: The Concorde Collages, Aleksandra Mir, Galerie Laurent Godin / Onestar Press, Paris 2006: 105 selected details from the Sharpie drawings 2003–2006, Aleksandra Mir, Onestar Press, Paris 2006: Living & Loving #3—The Biography of Mitchell Wright, eds. Aleksandra Mir & Polly Staple, White Columns, New York 2005: The Meaning of Flowers, Aleksandra Mir, Gavlak, Palm Beach / Sternberg Press, Berlin 2004: The Church of Sharpie, Aleksandra Mir, Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona 2004: Che and Concorde, Aleksandra Mir, Whitney Biennial, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 2004: Che and Concorde, Aleksandra Mir & Jim Fitzpatrick, Project Art Space, Dublin 2004: Living & Loving #2—The Biography of Zoe Stillpass, eds. Aleksandra Mir & Polly Staple, Frieze Projects, London 2003: Finding Photographs, Aleksandra Mir, Herning Kunstmuseum 2003: Danes in the Sun, Aleksandra Mir, Herning Kunstmuseum 2003: How to be a Joshua Tree, Aleksandra Mir, High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree 2003: Corporate Mentality, eds. Aleksandra Mir & John Kelsey, Lukas & Sternberg Inc. New York 2002: Daily News, ed. Aleksandra Mir, Gavin Brown's enterprise, NYC / greengrassi, London 2002/2012: Man with Artificial Heart, Aleksandra Mir, NYC/London
2002: Living & Loving #1—The Biography of D.C., eds. Aleksandra Mir & Polly Staple, Cubitt, London / Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee 2001: HELLO Ringier, Aleksandra Mir, Ringier, Zurich 1998: Bingo Blues, Aleksandra Mir, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow 1998: Disaster Guide, Cinema for the Unemployed, Aleksandra Mir, Momentum, Moss
Personal life Mir was born in Lubin, Poland in 1967. Her Polish citizenship was revoked during the 1968 Polish political crisis. She holds dual Swedish-American citizenship. She grew up in Sweden, where she studied at the University of Gothenburg. She moved to the United States in 1989 to attend the School of Visual Arts in New York and studied cultural anthropology at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research. Mir lived in Palermo, Sicily from 2005 to 2010. Currently, Mir lives in London.
References Stuart Comer, Valentina Ravaglia ([s.d.]). Aleksandra Mir. Tate Modern. Accessed March 2016.
Sandra Danicke, Plunder des Triumphs, Frankfurter Rundschau, 13 May 2009
External links Tara Expeditions, Antarctica Aleksandra Mir at Drawing Room, London Aleksandra Mir at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Aleksandra Mir at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York Aleksandra Mir at South London Gallery