BIO
Nadia Coën is an multidisciplinary artist based in New York City, born and raised in Zimbabwe, with generational ties to Austro-Hungary, Syria, Egypt.
Coën’s experiential time-based practice explore the intersection of architecture, poetics, light, and ephemera. Housed under the umbrella name The Inclining Experiment, Coën has produced a large body of work: architectonic light installation environments, time-based /text-based projections, works on paper, artist books/printed matter and artifact assemblages.
Coën is a two-time MacDowell Colony resident and has exhibited at numerous venues such as The Drawing Center, White Columns, Exit Art, the Guggenheim Lab, and the Whitney Museum.
She was a resident at ArtEventura Residency in Andalusia, Spain in 2023, and returned the summer of 2024. She was recently awarded the Emily Harvey Foundation Residency in Venice, Italy for 2025.
Pioneering the 1980s East Village Art Movement, Coën co-founded two seminal artist-book collectives: YOUR HOUSE IS MINE and ANTI-UTOPIA. YOUR HOUSE IS MINE is a curated protest project with over 50 artists, responding to social unrest, homelessness, gentrification, and the AIDS epidemic of the 80s and 90s. It is held in collections including MoMA, The Whitney, Getty, Centre Pompidou, Library of Congress, and the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.
Coën has a secondary practice in creating Narrative Spaces/ Exhibition Design and has co-created museum exhibitions such as at the Civil Rights Museum, MoCADA, the Alice Austen House Museum. She is currently developing two legacy museums in Kingston, Jamaica.
CV
NADIA COËN
Born: Harare, Zimbabwe
Lives and Works: New York City
Education: New York University, B.A., 1984
Grants
2025 – NYFA / Rauschenberg Emergency Grant
2024 – Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Grant
2024 – Artists’ Fellowship Grant
2003 – John and Mary Shirley Foundation Grant
1990 – Andy Warhol Foundation Grant
1989 – Arts Matters Grant
– New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant
– North Star Fund Grant
Residencies
2025 – Emily Harvey Foundation Residency, Venice, Italy
2024 – Arteventura Residency, Andalusia, Spain
2023 – Arteventura Residency, Andalusia, Spain
2003 – International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York, NY
2000 – MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
1999 – Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
1995 – MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
Solo Exhibitions / Installations
2025 – The Opening Gallery, New York, NY
2025 – DUMBO Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY
2024 – DUMBO Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY
2023 – DUMBO Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY
2022 – DUMBO Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY
2019 – Bullet Space, New York, NY
2017 – Bullet Space, New York, NY
2000 – 195 Chrystie Street, New York, NY
1998 – 9 Prince Street, New York, NY
1986 – A&P Gallery, New York, NY
1985 – A&P Gallery, New York, NY
Select Group Exhibitions
2023 – Bullet Space, New York, NY
2022 – Whitney Biennial, New York, NY
2022 – New-York Historical Society, New York, NY
2022 – Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
2021 – Howl! Happening, New York, NY
2021 – School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
2014 – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2012 – The Guggenheim Lab, New York, NY
2002 – ISCP, New York, NY
2001 – Exit Art, New York, NY
2001 – Gale Gates et al., New York, NY
2001 – Untitled (Space), New Haven, CT
1999 – Martinez Gallery, New York, NY
1998 – White Columns, New York, NY
1998 – The Drawing Center, New York, NY
1998 – The New Museum, New York, NY
1997 – Zurich Art Fair, Galerie Christian Schneeberger, Zurich, Switzerland
1997 – Exit Art, New York, NY
1996 – Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, NY
1994 – Franklin Furnace, New York, NY
1994 – Printed Matter, New York, NY
1994 – Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
1993 – Exit Art, New York, NY
1990 – Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island, NY
1984 – A&P Gallery, New York, NY
Bibliography / Reviews
2023 – Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, “Not That Way,” David Jaeger
2022 – Artnews, “Art for Change,” New-York Historical Society
2006 – Metropolis Magazine, “Mixed Messages,” Ellen Lupton
1999 – Flash Art, “Pavement: Inside/Outside,” Franklin Sirmans
1999 – Artnet, “Wall Works,” White Columns, Franklin Sirmans
1998 – New York Times, “Urban Encounters,” Holland Cotter
1998 – New York Times, Roberta Smith
1998 – Artforum, Elizabeth Hess
1993 – VSL Symposium, “Are We There Yet?”
1992 – Print Collectors News, “Entre Messie,” Nancy Princenthal
1992 – AIGA Journal, “Art and Media,” Ellen Lupton
1991 – Artforum, “No Place Like Home,” Elizabeth Hess
1990 – New York Times, “Examining the Sensitivities of the Apolitical Realm,” Roberta Smith
Book + Print Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
New York Public Library, Rare Books, New York, NY
Fales Library, New York University, NY
Tamiment Library Archives, New York University, NY
Library of Congress, Rare Books, Washington, DC
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York, NY
Amherst College, Special Collections, Amherst, MA
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, MA
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA
Yale University Library, New Haven, CT
Columbia University, Avery Library, New York, NY
Bard College, Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Archive for Visual and Concrete Poetry, Florida
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany
Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
Gutenberg Museum, Mainz, Germany
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, Germany
Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy
Museo d’Arte Paolo Pini, Milan, Italy
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (MART), Italy
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Teaching / Lectures
School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
New York University, New York, NY
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
The Guggenheim Lab, New York, NY