‘Since the lockdown started, I have been mostly at home with my daughter and have been doing watercolours. There is something intimate and joyful, but also fragile and contingent in working in watercolour that seemed right for the moment. Something you can take up and fold at any moment, and that is almost as fast and immaterial as writing or thought. Just before everything stopped, I was working on a project making ceramic bowls with my students at the art school in Geneva, so drawing tea ceremony chawans was a way to continue this now impossible project, even if just on paper.’
- Mai-Thu Perret
Mai-Thu Perretwas born in 1976 in Geneva, Switzerland and studied at Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK and the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York, NY. In 2018 she was the recipient of the Paul Boesch Art Prize, Bern, Switzerland. Recent solo exhibitions include Le Portique – Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain du Havre, Le Havre, France (2020); Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (2019); Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2019); MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland (2018); Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX (2016); Kunsthaus Aarau, Aarau, Switzerland (2011); MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland (2011); Le Magasin, Grenoble, France (2011) and The Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL (2006). In 2011 she took part in ILLUMInations at the 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, curated by Bice Curiger. Her work is housed in major international collections including Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA.
