Ceal Floyer’s work often uses everyday but generally overlooked objects or images to introduce defamiliarizing and somewhat startling moments into the spectator’s experience of a space. Slight alterations to found objects that are usually familiar from everyday experiences (a hairbrush, the sign for an emergency exit, or the projection of an image of a nail, for instance) create often surprising interventions that heighten the awareness of our surroundings.

Text copyright by Esther Schipper, Berlin.

Ceal Floyer was born 1968 and lives and works in Berlin. She studied from 1991-1994 at Goldsmith College in London and was awarded with the Nam June Paik Art Centre Prize, South Korea in 2009 and Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst, Germany in 2007. 

Recent solo shows include: Ceal Floyer, Kunsthal 44 Møen, Askeby, 2019; Ceal Floyer: Things, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, 2019; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2018–2019), 2018; Ceal Floyer, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, 2016; On Occasion, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, 2016; Ceal Floyer, Kunstmuseum Bonn, 2015; Ceal Floyer, Museion, Bolzano, 2014; Ceal Floyer, Kabinett für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremerhaven, 2013; Things, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 2011; Works on Paper, CCA, Tel Aviv, 2011; Ceal Floyer, DHC/ART, Montreal, 2011; Auto Focus, Museum of Modern Art, Miami, 2010; Ceal Floyer, KW Institute For Contemporary Art, Berlin, 2009 and Gakona, Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2009. 

Selected group shows include: Aichi Triennale 2019: Taming Y/Our Passion, 2019; KNOCK KNOCK. Humour in Contemporary Art, South London Gallery, London, 2018; Anders, Kunstmuseum Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, 2018; Rehearsal, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2018; Rehearsal, Old Bailey Galleries, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2018; Møenlight Sonata – A homage to the starry sky of Møn, Konsthal 44 Møen, Askeby, 2018; General Rehearsal. A Show in Three Acts from the Collections of V-A-C, MMOMA, and Kadist, MMOMA Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, 2018; The Transported Man, Broad Art Museum, Lansing, MI, 2017; moving is in every direction, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2017; WAITING. Between Power and Possibility, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 2017; Poor Art | Arte Povera: Italian Influences, British Responses, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, 2017; Mentally Yellow (High Noon), Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 2017; Behind the Curtain. Concealment and Revelation since the Renaissance. From Titian to Christo, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, 2016; Manifesta 11, Zurich, 2016; L’image volée, Fondazione Prada, Milan, 2016; Unsettling Green, MARTa Herford, 2016; More Konzeption Conception Now, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, 2015; The Event Sculpture, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2014; The Part In the Story Where a Part Becomes a Part of Something Else, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2014; Unendlicher Spass / Infinite Jest, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 2014; Explosion! Painting as Action, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2012; Invisible: Art about the Unseen, 1957–2012, Hayward Gallery, London, 2012; Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, 2012; dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, 2012 and the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009.