Observer’s Must-See Museum Shows of 2026
Elisa Carollo, Observer
January 2026
Ana Mendieta is best known for her unforgettable ‘Silueta’ series, which positioned her as a pioneer of ecofeminism by blending ancestral rituals of connection to the land with a dense personal symbology shaped by her heightened and often painful sensitivity to her surroundings. Exploring presence and absence through the imprint of the human body, she used natural materials such as fire, water and flowers to create ephemeral works that survive today only through photographs and film, later becoming a haunting premonition of her own tragic and premature disappearance. Active in the 1970s and early ’80s, the Cuban-born American artist posed profound questions about displacement and identity, connection and rupture with the land and the physical and spiritual essence of our existence as vibrating bodies in the world—questions that feel urgent amid the ecological and societal crises we are living through today. Organized in collaboration with the artist’s estate, this exhibition marks the first in-depth U.K. presentation of her work in more than a decade, reaffirming Mendieta’s status as one of the most important artists of the 20th Century. […]