About Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel (b. 1952) is one of Germany’s most influential conceptual artists, internationally recognized for artworks that challenge social conventions, gender roles, and the structures of art history itself. Her practice spans sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video, and print editions, each medium serving as a vehicle for her incisive critique of culture and power.

Trockel’s famous knitted works, produced on industrial knitting machines, subvert the traditional associations of craft, femininity, and domestic labor by transforming textiles into contemporary art. These knitted pieces, along with her mixed-media installations and fine art prints, often feature provocative imagery that questions consumerism, authorship, and the representation of women.

Her limited edition prints and multiples extend these investigations into reproducibility and seriality, making her conceptual work accessible to collectors while preserving the intellectual rigor of her practice. A central figure in postmodern and feminist art, Rosemarie Trockel has exhibited extensively at leading institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Venice Biennale, solidifying her status as a pivotal voice in contemporary art.

Through decades of innovation, Trockel has pushed the boundaries between traditional craft and avant-garde experimentation. Whether through sculptural installations, knitted works, or editions, her art invites audiences to reconsider materiality, authorship, and identity—ensuring her legacy as one of the most important German artists of her generation.

Notable exhibitions

Rosemarie Trockel has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at leading international museums. Landmark presentations include her retrospective Post-Menopause at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2005), and Rosemarie Trockel: Cosmos at the New Museum, New York (2012), which later traveled to Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, and the Serpentine Gallery, London. Earlier, her practice was showcased at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1993), cementing her reputation on the European stage.

Her work has also been featured prominently in documenta in Kassel and multiple editions of the Venice Biennale, where she represented Germany in 1999. Additional institutional solo shows include the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Kunsthaus Zürich, MAXXI in Rome, and Whitechapel Gallery in London.

Together, these exhibitions underline Trockel’s position as a central figure in contemporary art, recognized worldwide for her radical and thought-provoking practice.