ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Press Kit
TANK Shanghai is honored to present A Boxer’s Dream, a solo exhibition by Grace Schwindt. The exhibition opens on March 21, 2026, and will remain on view through July 5, 2026.
A Boxer’s Dream explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, proposing a deeply intertwined mode of coexistence. Moving away from anthropocentric perspectives, the exhibition foregrounds mutual vulnerability. Emphasizing the importance of deep listening and direct touch, Schwindt challenges models of understanding that rely on explanation or domination, instead proposing forms of encounter grounded in presence, reciprocity, and care.
Engagement with history through plants and animals has become a central strategy in Grace Schwindt’s practice. Through these living agents, she investigates the inextricable bond between humans and nature—one that is both fundamental and fragile, and urgently in need of protection.
To examine these relationships, Schwindt employs the framework of a boxing match to negotiate notions of proximity, touch, and conflict. A boxing ring forms the sculptural core of the exhibition, positioned at its center. An orchestration of blue, red, and white light creates a dramatic, live-event atmosphere, drawing visitors into an immersive spatial experience. Rather than focusing on the spectacle of combat, Schwindt turns her attention to the moments in between: the preparations, the pauses, the intervals, and the aftermath. In the fleeting instances when boxers come into close contact, gestures of care and tenderness emerge—moments that reveal vulnerability within confrontation.
Plant elements intertwine on different levels and mediums, evoking processes of transformation and underscoring a complex relationship with nature in which flowers and plants become active protagonists. The exhibition further draws inspiration from the birds of Shanghai and its wider surroundings, whether migratory or permanent residents. Their sounds will be woven into musical compositions performed in the newly created films and live during the opening, extending the exhibition’s exploration of listening, coexistence, and shared environments.
In 2026, the artist will have beside her exhibition at Museum TANK, Shanghai, a solo presentation at Kunsthaus Wiesbaden (Germany). In the past, she has had solo presentations at Museum M, Leuven (Belgium); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland); Kunsthal Gent (Belgium); Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow (UK); Rozenstraat – A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose, Amsterdam (the Netherlands); Rose Lejeune Gallery, London (UK); Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, Bath (UK); MARCO – Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo (Spain); Tramway, Glasgow (UK); The Showroom, London (UK); Site Gallery, Sheffield (UK); Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (Germany); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (Canada); Eastside Projects, Birmingham (UK); White Columns, New York (USA); WIELS, Brussels (Belgium); Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (UK); and Void, Derry (UK).
Live performances have been presented at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (Greece); Volksbühne Berlin (Germany); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland); Royal Institute of British Architects, London (UK); Frascati Theatre, Amsterdam (the Netherlands); Kaaitheater, Brussels (Belgium); Royal Academy of Arts, London (UK); Museum M, Leuven (Belgium); Amsterdam Kunstverein (the Netherlands); South London Gallery, London (UK); and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (UK).
Grace Schwindt has participated in Blickachsen 14 Sculpture Biennale, Bad Homburg (Germany); the Busan Biennale (South Korea); the Anren Biennale (China); and the Istanbul Biennial (Turkey). Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at Tate Britain, London (UK); WIELS, Brussels (Belgium); Imperial War Museum, London (UK); Arko Art Center, Seoul (South Korea); Garage, Rotterdam (the Netherlands); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (UK); CondeDuque Cultural Center, Madrid (Spain); El Carmen Cultural Center, Valencia (Spain); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana (Cuba); Mullae Art Factory, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Seoul (South Korea); and Weserburg Museum, Bremen (Germany), among others.
Her work is included in the following public collections: Arts Council Collection (UK); Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts (Japan); Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland); Teylers Museum, Haarlem (the Netherlands); Fondation Thalie, Brussels (Belgium); and TANK Shanghai (China).
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Grace Schwindt
Grace Schwindt:
Grace Schwindt, born in Offenbach, Germany and based in London, UK, works with sculpture, painting, performance, drawing and film. The different media employed are connected and intertwined, shapes from costumes reappear in drawings while sculptures echo performative gestures. Through her work she unfolds visual narratives that explore the effects that social power structures have on the body and psyche of the individual. She explores historical and current social realities through subjective experiences. Her process often originates from specific research and conversations with a wide range of people, including scientists, archaeologists, artists, musicians and her own relatives.
Schwindt is represented by Peter Kilchmann Gallery in Zurich and Paris and has previously been represented by Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp until their closure. Her films are distributed by Argos Centre for Media and Art in Brussels.
Her works have been presented in museums and galleries as well as in theatres and other performance contexts. Solo exhibitions include A History of Touch at Museum M in Leuven in 2025, When a Body Becomes a Landscape at Peter Kilchmann Gallery in Paris and When She Moves at Peter Kilchmann Gallery in 2024, Lacuna at Zeno X Gallery in Belgium in 2023, Defiant Bodies at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland in 2022/2023, Your Movement at Kunsthal Gent, Belgium in 2022, Five Surfaces All White at the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow and In Silence at Rozenstraat — a rose is a rose is a rose in Amsterdam in 2019, Silent Dance at Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp in 2018, Tiffany Vase at Rose Lejeune Gallery in London in 2017, Run a Home, Build a Town, Lead a Revolution. An Exhibition in Three Acts at MARCO – Museum of Contemporary Arts in Vigo, Spain in 2016. In 2015 She had solo exhibitions at Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, Site Gallery in Sheffield and Tramway in Glasgow. In 2014, she had solo exhibitions at Badischer Kunstverein in Karlsruhe, Eastside Projects in Birmingham and The Showroom in London. Performances have been presented at EMST – National Museum for Contemporary Arts in Athens in 2024, CGAC – Contemporary Art Center of Galicia in 2023, Volksbühne in Berlin and Kunstmuseum in St. Gallen in 2019, Robert Arts Institute in London and Frascati Theatre in Amsterdam in 2018, Kaaitheatre in Brussels in 2017, Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2016, Museum M in Leuven in 2013 and South London Gallery in London in 2011. Group exhibitions include Mother Lode and James Cohan Gallery in 2024, Busan Biennale in 2022, Breaking the Mould – Sculpture by Women since 1945, Arts Council Collection touring exhibition, Refugees: Forced to Flee at the Imperial War Museum in London in 2020-2021, Delirious at Lustwarande and in Tilburg in 2019, Prosecute my Posture at Garage Rotterdam in 2018, 1st Anren Biennale in China and Moving/Image at Arko Art Centre in Seoul, Korea in 2017, Ensemble sin órganos at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Havana, Cuba in 2016 and 14th Istanbul Biennial and Art Unlimited in Art Basel in 2015. Schwindt’s works are included in the following museum and public collections: Arts Council Collection, UK, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Japan, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland, M-Museum Leuven, Leuven, Belgium and Teylers Museum, Harlem, The Netherlands.
