Julie Béna’s work is made up of an eclectic set of references, combining contemporary and ancient literature, high and low art, humor and seriousness, parallel times and spaces. Comprising sculpture, installation, film, and performance, her work seems to often float in an infinite vacuum, unfolding against a fictional backdrop where everything is possible. Over the past years, Béna has developed a range of personal cosmologies in which she stages seemingly banal characters and objects that have enigmatic conversations and interactions with each other. From Pantopon Rose – a character taken from William S. Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch’ –, to Miss None and Mister Peanut – a disembodied floating wig and the iconic monocled anthropomorphic peanut –, Béna lends her characters a singular agency and voice, which defines them by what they are not.
Julie Béna was born in 1982 in Paris, France, and currently lives and works between Prague and Paris. She is a graduate of the Villa Arson, Nice, and attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
In 2025–26, Béna is the subject of her largest solo exhibition to date, Parodie, on view at Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR, until 5 April 2026. The exhibition is accompanied by her first monograph, Fantasy, published by Montez Press and available here.
Béna’s selected solo exhibitions include Magasin CNAC, Grenoble, FR (2025–26); PLATO, Ostrava, CZ (2024); Vitrine, Hermès, Prague, CZ (2024); CEAAC, Strasbourg, FR (duo exhibition with Anna Hulačová, 2023); Longtermhanstand, Budapest, HU (2025; 2022); NıCOLETTı, London, UK (2021); Villa Arson, Nice, FR (2021); Polansky Gallery, Prague, CZ (2020); Kunstraum, London, UK (2020); Kunstverein Bielefeld, DE (2020); Jeu de Paume, Paris, FR (2019); CAPC Bordeaux, FR (2019); Museo Amparo, Pueblo, Mexico, MX (2019); and CAC Passerelle, Brest, FR (2017).
Béna’s work has been shown in international museums and galleries, including Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR, Biennale de Rennes, FR; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR; National Gallery, Prague, CZ; MOCO, Montpellier, FR; Biennale de Coimbra, Coimbra, PT; Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Monaco, MC; Polansky Gallery, Brno, CZ; 1646, The Hague, NL; C art C Madrid, ES; Bozar, Brussels, BE; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco; Protocinema, Istanbul, TR, and Chapter NY, New York, US. Béna has staged numerous performances, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR; ICA, London, UK; M Leuven, BE; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR; and Performa NY, US.
Selected residencies include at Fonderie Darling, Montreal, CA; Futura, Prague, CZ; ISCP, New York, US; Moly Sabata, Sablons, FR; CCF, Surabaya; Rupert, Vilnius, LT; INI project, Prague, CZ.
In 2019, her first monograph was published by the Jeu de Paume, Paris, accompanying the artist’s solo exhibition at the museum. In 2017, Béna’s first book, It needs to be tender and to be whipped, was published by Montez Press, and launched in Paris, New York, and San Francisco.
Béna’s work is part of a number of public and private collections, including Kunstverein Bielefeld, Bielefeld, DE; CAPC, Bordeaux, FR; Fond d’art contemporain – Paris Collection, FR; Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap), Paris, FR; FRAC MÉCA Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux, FR; FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, FR; FRAC Normandie, Caen, FR; Fiorucci Arts Trust; Tapisserie Aubusson; Foundation Kunsthalle Praha, CZ; and Havrlant Art Collection, CZ
