Born in Los Angeles, USA
Lives and works in Berlin

Solo Shows

• 2024 —Magnificent Product, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
• 2021 —The Wicked Pavilion, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi / Eden Eden, Berlin
• 2020 —The White to be Angry, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA
• 2018 —An Invitation to the Dance, Adams and Ollman, Portland, USA
• 2015 —Come On Daughter Save Me, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, USA
• —The Magic Flute, 80SWE, NYU, New York, USA
• —Spring Awakening, Etherington Art Gallery, Kingston Ontario, Canada
• 2014 —All Things Yayoi Kusama First Lady of the Polka Dot, Lamp Gallery, Sheros, Tokyo, Japan
• 2012 —HAG, Participant Inc., New York, USA

Selected Group Shows

• 2023 —Ridykeulous: Ridykes’ Cavern of Fine Inverted Wines and Deviant Video, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham
• —Unbound: Performance as Rupture, Julia Stoschek Foundation, Berlin
• —Archival Assembly #2, Arsenal Berlin / Silent green Kulturquartier / Sinema Transtopia, Berlin
• —Self Creation, Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria
• 2022 —Attention Line, Artists Space, New York
• 2021 —Subscribe: Artists and Alternative Magazines, 1970-1995, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
• —Witch Hunt, The Hammer, Los Angeles, USA
• —13th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
• 2020 —Sâr Dubnotal, CAC Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France
• —Hollywood Babylon: A Re-Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, Deitch Projects, Los Angeles, USA
• 2018 —Breaking Wave, Participant Inc., New York, USA
• —Between, Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA
• —Every Day Muse, ltd, Los Angeles, USA
• 2017 —Trigger: Gender as Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, New York, USA
• —Chimera, Vaginal Davis & Louise Nevelson, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, USA
• —Donna In Avalon, Portland Museum of Modern Art, Portland, USA
• 2016 —Bodies and Stages, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover, Germany
• 2015 —Clifford Owens, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, USA
• —Key Figures, Adams and Ollman, Portland, USA
• —Bring Your Own Body, Cooper Union, New York, USA
• 2014 —Group Exhibition, Lamp Gallery, Sheros, Tokyo, Japan
• 2013 —Nu Age Hustle, Momenta Art, New York, USA
• —Vaginal Davis & The Philadelphia Wireman, Adams and Ollman, Portland, USA
• —I Killed My Father, I Ate Human Flesh, I Quiver With Joy: An Obsession with Pier Paolo Pasolini, Allegra LaViola, New York, USA
• 2012 —Bloodyminded, curated by INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, The Wye, Berlin, Germany
• 2011 —Notes on Notes on Camp, INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York, USA
• 2010 —Stuart Sherman: Nothing Up My Sleeve, curated by Jonathan Berger, Participant Inc., New York, USA
• 2009 —SMELL IT!, curated by Dietmar Schwärzler, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria
• —RE:akt! | reconstruction, re-enactment, re-reporting, curated by Domenico Quaranta, National Museum of Contemporary Art Bucharest, Romania and at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Rijeka, Croatia
• —Spill Performance Festival, London and at Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University, UK
• 2008 —The Way That We Rhyme, curated by Taraneh Hemami, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
• 2007 —Womanizer, curated by Julie Atlas Muz and Kembra Pfahler, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
• 2006 —Chinese Synthese Leberkase, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
• —Not For Sale, New York University, New York, USA
• 2005 —Founders Day: Jack Smith and the Work of Reinvention, New York, USA
• 2004 —Fade (1990-2003): A Survey of African American Artists Working in Los Angeles, curated by Malik Gaines, Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA
• —Visions of Excess and the Philosophy of Gifts-A Tribute to George Bataille, Akisoma Institute of Contemporary Art Kodali Castle, Ljubjana, Slovenia
• 2002 —Queer(ing) Warhol: Examining Andy Warhol’s Queer(ed) Performances, Riverside, USA
• 2001 —Beyond Origins, Hellenic American Union, Athens, Greece
• 2000 —Large Format Poloroids, Thread Waxing Space, New York, USA
• 1998 —Fluxus Tributep Beck & Al Hensen: Playing With Matches, Thread Waxing Space, New York, USA
• —Thread Waxing Space, New York, USA
• 1996 —Nirvana: Capitalism & the Consumed Image Series, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, USA

Selected Performances

• 2020 —Contemporary Vinegar Syndrome | Neurasia, with Daniel Hendrickson, HKW, Berlin, Germany
• 2017 —Rising Stars, Falling Stars, monthly performative film presentation, Arsenal Institut für Film und Videokunst, Berlin, Germany
• —Stealing Together, Goldsmiths’ Berlin Summer School, Berlin, Germany
• —Warhol Icon, Broad Museum, Los Angeles, USA
• —Mobile Academy-Drop Dead Gorgeous, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
• —Parliament of Bodies, documenta 14, Kassel, Germany
• —Archive Nationales – Art & Feminisms Edition, Gallery Lafayette Anticipation, Paris, France
• —Think Film Congress Nu 5—Archive Constellations, Berlinale Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
• —Gender Fest, Athens, Greece
• 2016 —Creative Time Summit, Occupy the Future, Washington DC, USA
• —Magic Flute—a Film in Pieces Press Conference, Goethe Institute, New York, USA
• 2016 —Bodies in Stages, Kunstverein Hannover, Germany
• 2015 —The Magic Flute, 80WSE Gallery, New York, USA
• —Afri Papi, Diaspora Festival Internacional de Cinema Queer, Lisbon, Portugal
• —Twee & Sympathy, Utopias Art Festival/Turbines Curatorial Collective, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
• —Some Other Spring, Center for Contemporary Art, Glasgow, Scotland
• —Perverse Assemblages, Queering Heteronormative Orders Inter/Medially, Carl von Ossietsky Universitaet, Oldenburg, Germany
• 2014 —Visuelles Dekolonisieren Congress and Workshop, Ort Filmstudio HBK, Braunschweig, Germany
• —Hörspielforum NRW 2014, Film und Medienstiftung NRW,Köln, Germany
• —Performance Studies Dept, Pratt Institute, New York, USA
• —Physique Tutorial: VD’s BM -Vaginal Davis is Speaking From the Perineum, New York University, New York, USA
• —Wolf Moon Gathering/Girls Against God, MoMA P.S.1, New York, USA
• 2013 —Chew Disco-Homotopia Festival 10, Liverpool, UK
• —Lesbi Tropicalia-Tea & Sympathy Tribute to Helio Oiticica Palmengarten, MMK Museum fur modern Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
•  
• —Ephemeropterae, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria
• —Living Archive Festival, Berlin, Germany
• —Decolonizing the “Cold” War /Be.Bop, Black Europe Body Politics, Berlin, Germany
• —Mammying the Archive, RSFS-We Must Have Music, Living Archive Project-Archive Work as a Contemporary Artistic and Curatorial Practice, Arsenal Institute For Film and Video Kunst, Berlin, Germany
• —Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo, The School of the Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, USA
• 2012 —Camp/Anti-Camp-VD is SFTD, Kunstlerhaus Mousonturn, Frankfurt, Germany
• —No One Leaves Delilah: A (W)rap on Race, New York University Performance Studies, New York, USA
• —Tenderloin-Das Lied Von Der Glocke, Tenderloin-Das Lied Von Der Glocke
• —Wir Haben Kein Zimmer Fuer Auslander, Radical Cross-Currents in Black Berlin, Humboldt Universitat, Berlin, Germany
• —Communist Bigamist—Two Love Stories, Art Basel, Kaserne Basel Tanz Theatre, Basel, Switzerland
• —Camp/Anti-Camp-Queer Guide to Everyday Life VD is SFTD, Hebbel Am Ufer/HAU2, Berlin, Germany
• —Communist Bigamist—Two Love Stories, Forum Freies Theater, Duesseldorf, Germany
• —My Pussy is Still in Los Angeles (I Only Live in Berlin), West of Rome/Pacific Standard Time Festival, Getty Art Center, Los Angeles, USA
• 2011 —Memory Island, Xperimenta 11: Contemporary Glances at Experimental Cinema, Center de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
• —Framing the Freakazoid, Goldsmith University, London, UK
• —Art, Music, Sex, Action-Trespass Parade & Festival, West of Rome/Pacific Standard Time, Getty Center, Los Angeles, USA
• —Memory Island-VD Trashes TM, Tate Modern, London, UK
• —Piss Gottin Hat Angst for unsicherheit, After the Butcher, Made in Berlin Festival, KW/Kunst-werke Institute For Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
• —Die Untoten Life Sciences & Pulp Fiction Congress & Mise-en-Scene, Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
• —The Whoracle et Delphi, Spill Festival Performance Tarot, Barbican Centre, London, UK
• —When The Curtain Falls, Martin-Gropius Bau Museum, Berlin, Germany
• —dejecta/protecta, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA
• 2010 —VD on EG- Vaginal Davis does Eugenie de Guerin- French Diarist, Staedelschule, Frankfurt, Germany
• —Re:Akt Re:Construction Re:Enactment Re:porting, curated by Domenico Quranta, Rotovz Exhibition Salon, Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor, Slovenia
• —Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo, UCLA Queer Arts Conference, Los Angeles, USA
• —What 80 Million Women Want, Curators Summer School, Kino Arsenal, Berlin, Germany
• —Tony Montanas Ritt der Walküren, (director, with Senol Sentürk), Hector-Peterson-Oberschule/Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany
• —Vaginal Davis is Speaking from the Diaphragm, 2009 Ethyl Eichelberger Award Performance, Performance Space 122, New York, USA
• —Contagious! (film by Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz), Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
• —Hippo Narcissus, Semiospectacle: A Literary Revue/Columbia University, Performance Space 122, New York, USA
• —Intermission Green (performance), Forum Expanded, Berlinale: 60th Internationale Filmfestspiele, Berlin, Germany
• —The Dream of Norma (by Telémacos Alexiou), Forum Expanded, Berlinale: 60th Internationale Filmfestspiele, Berlin, Germany
• 2009 —The Bad Breast, or the Strange Case of Theda Lange, directed by Bruce LaBruce, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany and at Brut Theater, Vienna, Austria
• —Personal Counseling - Cooling Down Passion (or: the end of self-improvement); On the Scene of Intimacy, A Phantasmagoria, (film), Mobile Academy/Excellence Cluster, Languages of Emotion, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —Plattenspieler, with Thomas Meinecke, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —Reparations & Retardations, Performa 09, New York, USA
• —Memory Island, LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! Five Flaming Days in a Rented World, Berlin, Germany
• —Frau unter Einfluss, Pheonix Radio: Politik queer-feministischer Räume, Kunsthaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
• —Hippo Narcissus, Kino Arsenal, Curators’ Summer School, Berlin, Germany
• —Daddy, as part of the Family: Your Nanny Hates You festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —The History of Ecstasy (with Ron Athey), Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, Italy
• —Advance Capitalism Interspecies HooDoo, Girl Monster (curated by Chicks on Speed), Kampnagel, Hamburg, Germany
• —Macho Family Romance, Macho Family Romance, Neumarkt Theater, Zurich, Switzerland
• —Flesh for LuLu: Taking the High Road to Sexual Failure, 7th International Contemporary Art Expertos Forum, Arco ‘09 - Feria, Internacional De Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid, Spain
• —Berlin Babylonia Gorgon—Babbling on with Gossip, Song and Dance, Forum Expanded, Berlinale: 59th Internationale Filmfestspiele, Berlin
• —Fornication No! Theocracy Yes! Conjuring Voice in the Spirit, Politics of Ecstasy, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —Wilhelm Hein’s “You Killed The Underground, or the Real Meaning of Kunst Bleibt, Bleibt (Expanded Cinema Version),”, KW/Kunst-werke Institute For Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
• 2008 —The Ginger Concubine, Bistroteque, London, UK
• —Pink Mass, curated by Stuart Comer, Tate Modern, London, UK
• —Standing in the Way of Control, Gossip at Columbia Halle, Berlin, Germany
• —The Arrogance of Youth, Klubszene Jungen Project, Youth at Risk-Kinder und Jugend Theaterfestival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —Porno Adorno-F*ck Like the F*cking Blacks, Le Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France
• —CHEAP Blacky, Donau Festival, Stadtsaul, Krems, Austria
• —You’ll Know What To Do, Raumerweiterrungshalle, Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Max und Moritz, Theater An Der Parkauer, Berlin, Germany
• —Bilitis-A Feminist State, The Way That We Rhyme, Women, Art & Politics, Yerba Buena Museum & Art Center, San Francisco, USA
• —Colonize Me, The Way That We Rhyme, Women, Art & Politics, Yerba Buena Museum & Art Center, San Francisco, USA
• —The CHEAP Uber Alles Outsider Art Awards, CHEAP Gossip Studio Installation, 58th Internationale Filmfestspiele, Forum Expanded Section of the Berlinale Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
• —You Too Can Be Like Us-Ruth Fischer, Re-Education Festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• 2007 —Sextette - An Erotic Playground, Queer Zagreb Replaying The Balkans Art Festival-Klub Global, Zagreb, Croatia
• —CHEAP Max und Moritz, Theater an der Parkauer, Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Blacky, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Max und Moritz, Theater an der Parkauer, Berlin, Germany
• —TB to VD-Revolution Should Taste Like Cum, FM Queer/FM4-WUK, Vienna, Austria
• —Whoregasm, Porn Film Festival Nachtbar at Lux & Trixter, Berlin, Germany
• —Blame Canada, Peres Projects, Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Max und Moritz, Theatre an der Parkauer, Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Max und Moritz, Command Performance for the Bundespresident at Schloss Bellvue, Berlin, Germany
• —VD as VB Erdgeist, Earthspirit #27-29 10827, City of Women Festival Galerie Kapelica/Aksioma Institute of Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• —The Madonna of Laibachdorf, City of Women Festival Alcatraz Galerie, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• —Beware the Holy Retarded Whore, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• —Woman Under the Influence, Gallery Articule, Montreal, Canada
• —Lord Love a Duck, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, Montreal, Canada
• —Si J’Etais Blanche, Simone de Beuvoir Institute, Montreal, Canada
• —Bilitis - A Feminist State, Womanizer, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
• 2006 —CHEAP Silvester, Ruth Fischer Monsterland, an Interactive Installation, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —That Cold Day in the Park, Alternative Art Fair International, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• —CHEAP Nothing’s Going To Stop Me On My Path To Glory, Steirischerherbst Festival Campshow Steirmark, Graz, Austria
• —Tom Cruise Loves Women, The Women and Tom Cruise, Homo-A-Go-Go Queer Arts Festival, Olympia, USA
• —Bricktops Takes Manhattan, Siberia, USA
• —Where Art & Life Collide, Festival of Subcultural Performances, New York University, New York, USA
• —Tom Cruise Loves Women, The Women and Tom Cruise, Ohio State University, Athens, Greece
• —Weimar, Joe’s Pub, New York, USA
• —Beware the Holy Retarded Whore, ‘making LOVE queering SEX’ Sager Symposium Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, USA
• 2005 —VD as VB Black & White Women and Men Together Again Forever 483-8070, Roselee Goldberg ́s First Biennial of New Visual Art Performances (PERFORMA), Participant Inc., New York, USA
• —Vaginal Davis Film Retrospectacle, Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, USA
• —Orifice Descending, New Moves Festival/National Review of Live Art, Glasgow, Scotland
• —CHEAP Makeover, Poker Im Osten Festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP It Happened to Me: A Revolutionary Horror Ride, with Vaginal Davis, Poker Im Osten Festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —VD as VB Black & White Women and Men Together Again Forever, Platinum Experimental Section/Outfest Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Red Cat at Disney Hall, Los Angeles, USA
• —Beware the Holy Retarded Whore, Theorizing Queer Visualities Conference; University of Manchester, UK
• —The Maladjusted Rule, Queer Up North Festival Contact Theater, Manchester, UK
• —Orifice Descending, Hayward Gallery, Manchester, UK
• —Beware the Holy Retarded Whore, Ein Electronic-Cinema Abend, Kino Arsenal/Freunde Der Deutschen Kinemathek Berlin, Germany
• —VD as VB Guggenheimy Bikini Show, Poker Im Osten Festival, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• —CHEAP Silvester Sexual Repulsives Art Bachanalia, Kollective CHEAP with Vaginal Davis featuring performances and installations by Bruce La Bruce, Vaginal Davis, Peaches, Joel Gibb of the Hidden Cameras, Franka Potenta, Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera, Katarzyna Kozyra, Velvet Hammer Burlesque, Max Riemelt, Wilhelm Hein and post political art band Ruth Fischer featuring Ibadette and Michael Halves of Super 700, Hebbel am Ufer (HAU2), Berlin, Germany
• 2002 —Pleather-The Dorian Corey Story, Spicy Beef Curtains at the Parlour, Los Angeles, USA
• 2001 —CHEAP Jewelry, Reich und Berühmt Festival, Praeter, Berlin, Germany
• —Theocracy, Yes! Fornication, No!, Reich und Berühmt Festival, Podevil, Berlin, Germany
• —The Life of Juanita Castro, Reich und Berühmt Festival, Podevil, Berlin, Germany
• —Sucking Her Un-born Cock, Reich und Berühmt Festival, Volksbruner, Berlin, Germany
• —Intimacy & Tomorrow (Stupidity, To-day), C’est Vauxhaul! Festival Duckie, London, UK

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