Biography

AURELIA MIHAI (b. in Bucharest, Romania) is a visual artist and filmmaker, who lives and works in Hamburg, Germany.

She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Bucharest, and then came to Germany in 1994 with a DAAD grant where she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf (Class for New Media, Prof. Nan Hoover) and at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne (Profs. Valie EXPORT and Jürgen Klauke).

She is the recipient of numerous prizes and scholarships including the E STAR Scholarship from the Institute for Electronic Arts, Alfred University, New York, the Villa Aurora Scholarship, Los Angeles, USA (2001), the EMARE Scholarship Hull Time Based Arts, Kingston upon Hull, UK (2004), Bremen Video Art Award (1998), Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf (Award for the visual arts of the state capital Düsseldorf) (2001), Spiridon-Neven-DuMont Prize (2002), Scholarship of the state of NRW for a media artist (2003), EuRegio Art Prize, Germany – The Netherlands (2005), Hamburger Arbeitsstipendium für Bildende Kunst, (Hamburg Scholarship for Visual Arts) (2005), Scholarship Schloss Ringenberg (2005), Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Germany (2009), German Academy Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy (2007), IASPIS, International Artist Studio Programme Stockholm, Sweden (2010), Project scholarship Stiftung Kunstfonds (2013), Federal German Support Grants for short films (2006, 2013), Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg, project funding (2009, 2015), Stiftung Kunstfonds, Neustart Kultur Grant (2022) and NEUSTARTplus Grant, Stiftung Kunstfonds (2023).

From 2009 to 2021 she was a professor at the Braunschweig University of the Arts, Germany.

Aurelia Mihai’s solo exhibitions include: Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany (1998), Kunstraum Düsseldorf, Germany (2001), Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull, UK (2004), Marburger Kunstverein, Germany (2004), Kunstverein Hildesheim, Germany (2004), Marstall Galerie, Ahrensburg, Germany (2007), Museum Goch, Germany (2007), Galerie Anita Beckers, Frankfurt, Germany (2008), MNAC (National Museum for Contemporary Art) Bucharest, Rumania (2009), Kunstverein Bochum, Germany (2010), Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany (2012). Her works have been exhibited internationally, including: Deichtorhallen Hamburg - Falckenberg Collection (2019), Germany, K21 Düsseldorf (2009) Germany, Kunsthalle Mainz (2010), Germany, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2005, 2008) Germany, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany), Bonn (2003), Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne, Germany (2000, 2002), Fankfurter Kunstverein, Germany (2007), Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (2005, 2009), Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin Germany (2009), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany (2003, 2009), “The Worldly House“, Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany (2012), Zentrum für verfolgte Künste, (Center for Persecuted Arts), Solingen, Germany (2017), the Chelsea Art Museum, New York (2006) USA, Robert Else Gallery, Sacramento, California, USA, the Cheekwood Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee (2010), USA, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, Naples, (Palace of Arts Naples, Neapel), Italy (2007), MACRO - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Rome, (Museum of Contemporary Art Rome), Italy (2007), PAN SCREENING at the 52nd Venice Biennale, Giardini della Biennale, Venice, Italy (2007), Romanian Institute for Culture and Humanistic Research, Palazzo Correr Cannaregio Venice, Italy (2011), Cento d’Arte e Cultura, San Paolo Exposizioni, Modena, Italy, (2008), Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy, (2007, 2020), Cass Gallery - Central House, London, UK (2011), Centre of Contemporary Art and the Nature World, Plymouth, UK (2009), Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery at Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK (2013), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2012), Centre International d’Art Contemporain de Pont Aven, France (2008), Fondation Fiminco, Romainville, France (2021), Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, The Netherlands (2005), Cobra Museum in Amstelveen, The Netherlands (2011), IASPIS, Stockholm, Sweden (2010), Romanian Cultural Institute, Stockholm, Sweden (2008), National Museum Brukental, Sibiu, Romania (2008), Club Electro Putere, Centre For Contemporary Culture, Craiova, Romania (2011), National Museum Brukenthal, Sibiu, Romania (2010), Periferic 8, Biennial of Contemporary Art, Iaşi, Romania (2008), Sector 1 Gallery, Bucharest, Romania (2022), LOOP Barcelona, Spain (2005), Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2005, 2011), Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia (2008), Bruno House of Arts, Czech Republic (2006), Futura, Prague, Czech Republic (2009), Ars Electonica, Linz, Austria (2001), Landesgalerie Linz, Austria (2011), Kunsthalle Salzburg at the Salzburg Museum, Austria (2013), MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland (2016), Kunstmuseum Thurgau, Ittinger Museum, Switzerland (2016), Museum Cinema, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (2019), BIENALSUR, International Contemporary Art Biennial of South America, Cordoba Art Center, Cordoba, Argentina (2021), Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous MAPI, Montevideo, Uruguay, (2022), KYOTOGRAHIE 22, KG+ photography festival satelleite, French Institute, Kyoto, Japan (2022), After SCULPTURE / SCULPTURE After, Fundația TRIADE - European Capital of Culture, Timisoara, Romania (2023).

Aurelia Mihai’s film and video works have been shown at numerous festivals, including:
"Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin" at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2012), Louvre Auditorium, Louvre Museum, Paris, France (2019), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, (House of the Cultures of the World) Berlin (2010, 2011, 2019) Germany, "Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid" at Filmoteca Española, Madrid, Spain (2010), Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2011), "European Media Art Festival" (2002), Osnabrück, "Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest", Kassel (2010), "Videochroniques", France, "DaKino International Film Festival", Bucharest, Romania (2006), "DokMa, Documentary Film Festival" Ljubljana, Slovenia (2009), "goEast" - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, Wiesbaden, Germany (2010), Brooklyn EUphoria cultural fertival, Brooklyn, New York, USA (2004), "Science + Fiction", Switzerland (2018), "FUZZY DARK SPOT CINEMA", Metropolis Kino, Hamburg, Germany (2019), "FIFA" 37th International Festival of Films on Art, Montréal, Canada (2019) and "Cinema Urbana", Museu Correios, Brasilia, Brazil (2019).