Ana Mendieta

With more than 120 works on display, Tate Modern presents a solo exhibition of multidisciplinary artist Ana Mendieta (1948-1985).

Ana Mendieta described herself as a sculptor, though her practice moved fluidly across photography, film, performance and site-specific work. Best known for her Silueta Series, she placed or traced the body in landscapes of mud, sand, grass, fire and water, seeking not representation but reunion. Torn from Cuba as a child and raised in the United States, Mendieta often spoke of her work as a return: to nature, to ritual, to what she called the maternal source. In her hands, water becomes element, threshold and force – part of a cosmology in which the body is porous to the world, and the earth itself is alive.

The exhibition is arranged thematically through symbolic locations, highlighting key moments in the artist’s career and demonstrating her persistent engagement with the natural world. Her iconic Silueta Series 1973-80 is presented alongside newly remastered films, rarely seen paintings and drawings, late sculptures and restaged installations, shedding new light on her practice and demonstrating its lasting power for new audiences.

Cover Image: Ana Mendieta, Bird Run 1974. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London