Hauser & Wirth Menorca Presents Cindy Sherman and Mika Rottenberg

On view through October 26, 2025, Cindy Sherman‘s “The Women and Mika Rottenberg‘s Vibrant Matter form the centerpiece of Hauser & Wirth Menorca’s summer program. Set against the sunlit serenity of the Illa del Rei, the two exhibitions explore themes of femininity, excess, and identity,  each through radically different, yet equally compelling, visual language.

Sherman continues her decades-long investigation of self-representation through meticulously staged photographs, while Rottenberg takes a more surreal approach, crafting sensory-rich installations that confront consumer culture and spectacle. Together, these exhibitions underscore Hauser & Wirth Menorca’s commitment to showcasing artists who challenge and redefine the boundaries of contemporary art.

Cindy Sherman: The Women

For her first solo exhibition in Spain in over two decades, Cindy Sherman returns to the heart of her practice: the performance of femininity. “The Women” features a selection of her most iconic works from the 1970s through 2010, including Untitled Film Stills (1977-1980) alongside recent large-scale photographic portraits, in which invented characters, clad in couture and theatrical makeup, occupy a liminal space between elegance and unease.

The images conjure echoes of Old Hollywood glamour, aging societies, and carefully cultivated personas, only to unravel them with intensity. Beneath the glamour is Sherman’s enduring critique of how femininity is performed, aged, and consumed.

A dedicated gallery spotlights her Bus Riders and Murder Mystery series, early projects offering incisive observations on American identity and image-making. Taking its title from Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 all-female play The Women, the exhibition draws connections between Sherman’s photographic personas and broader narratives around class, celebrity, and constructed femininity. From Hollywood archetypes to today’s influencer culture, Sherman continues to expose the performative nature of gender and social identity, revealing how women are both shaped by and complicit in the images imposed upon them.

Mika Rottenberg: Vibrant Matter

In Vibrant Matter, her first solo exhibition in Spain, Mika Rottenberg transforms the walls of the Illa del Rei into a world that hums with movement, absurdity, and saturated sensation. The exhibition brings together Hypnotic video installations, kinetic objects, and hybrid machines that seem to breathe and sweat. Highlights include celebrated works such as Cosmic Generator (2017) and Spaghetti Blockchain (2019), shown alongside her latest series, Lampshares (2024-2025), a series of functional sculptures carved from bittersweet vines and reclaimed plastic. With equal parts satire and sensuality, Rottenberg’s work explores unraveling systems of labor, spectacle, and gender through surreal and tactile visual language.

In “Vibrant Matter,” Mika Rottenberg expands her critique of capitalism’s production systems into sculptural form. Alongside these works, Rottenberg presents a selection of recent drawings, which echo the surreal, bodily, and industrial themes running through her videos and installations. Depicting fingerprints, human limbs, and sensual organic shapes, the drawings continue her exploration of non-normative female bodies and female labor.

Throughout, the exhibition addresses ideas of circularity—both in ecological processes and narrative structures—underscoring Rottenberg’s ongoing concerns with appropriation, distortion, reinvention, and the absurdities of hyper-capitalism. Her layered approach highlights both the fragmentation of modern experience and the global systems that bind us together.

An Island for Art and Imagination

Since opening in 2021, Hauser & Wirth Menorca has embodied— and redefined— the concept of an island art center. Nestled within the natural and historical beauty of Illa del Rei, the gallery occupies a sensitively restored 18th-century naval hospital off the coast of Mahón. It brings together contemporary art, history, and community engagement through site-specific exhibitions with education and sustainability initiatives. With its open-air courtyards, sunlit galleries, and Mediterranean surroundings, the space offers a uniquely immersive art experience that encourages reflection, connection, and dialogue.

Education Lab at Hauser & Wirth Menorca

The Education Lab: Play Your Part is an interactive, immersive space inspired by “Cindy Sherman. The Women” and “Mika Rottenberg. Vibrant Matter.” Created in collaboration with ESADIB (Escola Superior d’Art Dramàtic de les Illes Balears) and choreographed by professor Irene Pascual, the project invites visitors to engage in a self-directed theater experience exploring the plasticity of identity. Blurring the lines between creator and spectator, participants become active contributors to the unfolding experience. Part of Hauser & Wirth’s global Education Lab initiative, this project reflects the gallery’s ongoing commitment to inclusive learning and community engagement, fostering dialogue between art, artists, and diverse audiences. Similar Education Labs are held at Hauser & Wirth locations in Menorca, Somerset, Downtown Los Angeles, and Chillida Leku, each developed in partnership with local schools, universities, or community groups.