Adelita Husni-Bey's Institutional Critique and 2019 New Museum Solo Show

Adelita Husni-Bey, a Libyan-Italian artist based in New York, maintains an anarchist practice while navigating institutional contradictions. Her first institutional solo exhibition in the United States, titled Chiron, runs at the New Museum through April 14, 2019. Husni-Bey's work employs workshops, plays, and videos to examine legal and political processes, placing participants at the center of legislative explorations. Her 2014 video Agency giochi di potere (Agency Power Games), initially shown at Rome's MAXXI museum and later at the 16th Quadriennale, documents a school workshop where students role-played professionals to analyze capitalist power dynamics. Another piece, La luna in folle (The Neutral Moon, 2016), features a circular stage with three televisions looping debates in different formats, critiquing immigration law and political discourse. The artist's involvement with major institutions highlights the art world's complicity with broader societal structures. This year, she will participate in the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Her work has also been exhibited at the Sursock Museum in Beirut and the 11th Gwangju Biennale. Husni-Bey is represented by Laveronica Arte Contemporanea in Modica, Sicily. This profile originally appeared in the January & February 2017 issue of ArtReview, presented in association with the K11 Foundation.