A landmark retrospective tracing forty years of boundary-pushing performance and visual practice
Steven Cohen. Courtesy of Iziko.
‘Steven Cohen: Long Life’ opens at the Iziko South African National Gallery on 12 December 2025, marking the most extensive survey to date of one of South Africa’s most influential and uncompromising artists. Spanning four decades of performance, installation, image-making and object-based work, the exhibition brings together a body of practice that has shaped contemporary performance discourse across South Africa, France and beyond. Coalescing around relationships, memory and resilience, ‘Long Life’ presents Cohen’s sustained engagement with identity, politics, ethics and belonging, while grounding these themes in the intimate and deeply personal narratives that have defined his career.
A Retrospective Rooted in Love, Loss and Survival
Anchored by its title, a Jewish condolence that affirms the blessing of life, ‘Long Life’ threads together compassion, indignation, grief and connection. The exhibition reveals Cohen’s wide-ranging practice through installations, rare archival material, performance documentation, films and sculptural objects. Early textile works from the late 1980s appear alongside infamous uninvited public interventions from the 1990s and 2000s, as well as later staged performances developed across international festivals and theatre spaces. Together, they offer a loosely chronological yet emotionally cohesive portrait of a singular artistic life.
A Career That Expanded the Language of Performance Art
Cohen’s oeuvre exposes and reconfigures structures of power by using the body as a site of tension, ritual and transformation. His sophisticated makeup, sculptural costumes, and choreographed gestures draw on luxury, queer subcultures, archaic ritual, and colonial visual vocabularies, creating meticulously composed performances that are both intimate and confrontational. His work, informed by his identity as a gay, Jewish, white South African man, explores the edges of vulnerability, endurance and freedom. With presentations at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, Festival d’Avignon and the Bavarian State Opera, Cohen has built an internationally recognised practice that consistently addresses the margins of society through personal truth.
Public Programmes and Institutional Support
Curated by Dr Anthea Buys, ‘Long Life’ is accompanied by an inclusive public programme featuring youth-focused initiatives, artist-led workshops, and guided walkabouts aimed at expanding access to contemporary art and fostering thoughtful engagement. The exhibition is made possible through the support of Iziko Museums of South Africa, the French Institute of South Africa, the Institut Français in Paris, Stevenson Gallery, and private donors. Visitors are advised that the exhibition includes material exploring sensitive themes but is presented within Iziko’s commitment to artistic freedom, dialogue and inclusivity.
‘Steven Cohen: Long Life’ runs from 12 December 2025 to 30 June 2026 at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town. Explore the programming and updates at Iziko.
