Hortensia Mi Kafchin (b. 1986) was born in Galati, Romania and lives works in Berlin, Germany. Within her multifaceted practice, Kafchin unites a highly classical painting style with a distinctive set of motifs and an enduring fascination with hybridity that reflects the blended visual environment of our media age. As a figurative painter making work about the contemporary trans experience, Kafchin vividly renders the personal in utopian scenes that comment on the technological, environmental, and socio-political realities of our time. Kafchin received a degree from the University of Art and Design in Cluj in 2010. Her work can be found in collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY; and the Ludwig Museum, Köln, Germany. Kafchin has presented solo exhibitions at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania; Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany; Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Art Encounters Foundation, Timișoara, Romania; Lyles & King, New York, NY; and Museum of Art, Cluj, Romania, among others. Kafchin has also taken part in group exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; New Museum, New York, NY; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria; The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; and Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France, among others. In 2023, Kafchin presented her first solo exhibition with P·P·O·W, Years of Bad Hair. She presented her third solo exhibition with Galerie Judin, Cheerful Melancholia, in early 2024.
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
b. 1986, Galati, Romania
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Education
2010 University of Art and Design, Cluj, Romania
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Cheerful Melancholia, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
2023
Years of Bad Hair, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2020
Hortensia Mi Kafchin, Elephant West, London, UK
Hortensia Mi Kafchin: Death Is Not a Piece of Cake, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
2019
Hortensia Mi Kafchin: Chemtrails, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2018
Between Nights, Lyles & King, New York, NY
2016
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Memories from the Depth of the Tethys Sea, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Chronicles of My Fantastic Banality, BWA SOKÓŁ Gallery, Nowy Sącz, Poland
2015
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Reverse Engineering of the Self, Trafó Gallery – House of Contemporary Arts, Budapest, Hungary
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Fraction of Lightnings, Plants, and Synapses, Sabot, Cluj, Romania
2014
Relative Kinematics of a Passing Moment, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris, France
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: If a screw falls in an abandoned robot workshop and there’s nobody around to hear, does it make a sound?, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Immortals Have Fun, Crystal, Stockholm, Sweden
Il Clouds, Gaudel de Stampa, Paris, France
2011
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: A Prologue to Vanity and Self-Adoration, Sabot, Cluj, Romania
2010
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: How it’s Made, Laika Art Space, Cluj, Romania
2009
Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin: Long Gone Future, Museum of Art, Cluj, Romania
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
FULL DISCLOSURE: Selections from the Thomas-Suwall Collection, The Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND
I’m a thousand different people—Every one is real, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
Goddesses, Amazons, and Mothers, Romanian Cultural Institute, New York, NY
2023
SIRANI, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
Looking Anew and Beyond: Contemporary Romanian Art from the Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
My Rhino Is Not a Myth: Art Encounters Biennial 2023, Timisoara, Romania
Les Enchantées, HAUNT, Berlin, Germany
2022
Machines of Desire, Simon Lee Gallery, London, UK
I’m Not Your Mother, P·P·O·W, New York, NYC
2021
TEKNOLUST: OBJECTOPHILIC FUTURES, WOAW Gallery, Central, Hong Kong
Listen to Us – Artistic Intelligence, SKLAD, Plovidv, Bulgaria
La Brique, The Brick, Cărămida, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse – Centre d’art contemporain, Mulhouse, France
Trans World, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Trans World, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest, Romania
You’ve never seen the lonely me at all, Skånes konstförening, Malmö, Sweden
Ex-East. Past and recent stories of the Romanian avant-garde, Espace Niemeyer, Paris, France
2018
BioPerversity, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Seeing Eye Awareness, City Gallery of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Formal Encounters, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest, Romania
La Chose, Centre d’Art Contemporain – La Synagogue de Delme, Delme, France
The Unpleasant Show, Jecza Gallery, Timișoara, Romania
2017
The Basilisk, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Half-Truth, The Museum of Sculpture at Królikarnia, Warsaw, Poland
2015
Art Encounters: Appearance and Essence, Timco Halls, Timișoara, Romania
La Chose, Centre d’Art Contemporain – La Synagogue de Delme, Delme, FR
Mapping Bucharest. Art, Memory, and Revolution 1916 – 2016, MAK Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst, Vienna, Austria
Cluj Connection 3D, Galerie Judin, Berlin, Germany
2014
Fragile Sense of Hope – Art Collection Telekom, The Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht, Berlin, Germany
A Few Grams of Red, Yellow, Blue: New Romanian Art, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module. Museum as Hub, New Museum, New York, NY
2013
Scènes roumaines, Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Yellowing of the Lunar Consciousness, Palazzo Bonvicini, Venice, Italy
Prague Biennale 6: Expanded Painting, Prague, Czech Republic
It’s Compulsory that we Have a Title, Salonul de Projecte, Bucharest, Romania
2012
The Biennial of Young Artists, Bucharest, Romania
Original/Copy III, Peles Empire, Cluj, Romania
La Triennale: Intense Proximity, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
European Travellers – Art from Cluj Today, Műcsarnok – Kunsthalle Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
2011
Walter Koschatzky Kunst-Preis 2011, MuMoK – Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria
BERLIN SHOW #3: Glimpse, Galeria Plan B, Berlin, Germany
2009
International Student’s Biennial of Small Sculpture Form, Poznań, Poland
Select Collections
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Collection Deutsche Telekom, Bonn, Germany
Hort Family Collection, New York, NY
Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, New York, NY
Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany
Select Bibliography
2023
Judin, Juerg, Pay Matthis Karstens. SIRANI. Berlin: Galerie Judin, 2023.
Roncati, Elisabetta. Arte Queer: corpi, segni, storie. Milan: Rizzoli, 2023.
2018
Kafchin, Mi, et al. Mi Kafchin Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Berlin: Galerie Judin, 2018.
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Vessels, 2023
oil on canvas
63 x 51 1/8 x 1 1/8 ins.
160 x 130 x 3 cm
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Global Warming and Dysphoria, 2023
oil on canvas
55 1/8 x 63 ins.
140 x 160 cm
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Years of Bad Hair Day, 2022 - 2023
oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 39 3/8 ins.
120 x 100 cm
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Battle Bots and Deep Anesthesia, 2023
oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 39 3/8 ins.
120 x 100 cm
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
Mother of singularity, 2022 - 2023
oil on canvas with metallic paint and spray
75 3/4 x 96 1/2 ins.
192.5 x 245 cm
Hortensia Mi Kafchin
On my way, 2022
oil on canvas
47 1/4 x 39 3/8 ins.
120 x 100 cm
P·P·O·W is pleased to announce the co-representation of Berlin-based artist Hortensia Mi Kafchin with Galerie Judin.
As the blooms of spring emerge, so does a fresh wave of artistic brilliance in the heart of New York City. This season, the cultural landscape is filled with groundbreaking exhibitions that not only captivate the senses but also honor the remarkable contributions of female artists. In honor of the abundance of art to go see, we rounded up four remarkable shows to see this month. From art pioneer Yayoi Kusama to contemporary trailblazer Hortensia Mi Kafchin, these exhibitions all engage in a profound exploration of each artist’s vision, creativity, and impact.
Want to see new art in New York this weekend? Start in Chelsea with Sonia Gomes’s fabric-heavy solo show and Ursula von Rydingsvard’s wood sculptures. Then head to TriBeCa for a group show on landscape painting and June Leaf’s memorable new show.
Hortensia Mi Kafchin explains how most of her paintings can be read like a journal. The information she absorbs from art history, philosophy, science fiction, conspiracy theories, and popular culture, mixes with her dreams, fears and her childhood memories from her birth-place, Romania. She talks about how a near-death experience shifted her entire worldview, and how her recent transition from male to female inspires her to explore internalized issues related to her gender, and her relationships to God, time, and death.
The theme of transformation took centre stage in Mi Kafchin’s recent exhibition at Berlin’s Galerie Judin, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Born in the Romanian city of Galați in 1986, and formerly the assistant of Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie, she relocated from Cluj-Napoca to Berlin just over a year ago, working in a studio above the gallery itself.
