Galerie Rudolfinum is presenting Radical Tenderness, the largest institutional solo exhibition to date by Colombian-born, Paris-based artist Iván Argote.

Running until September 7, 2025, the exhibition is free and comes after a landmark year for Argote, marked by his participation in the Venice Biennale and the installation of Dinosaur—a five-metre-high pigeon sculpture—on New York’s High Line.

Curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, the show spans over 15 years of Argote’s career, with works in painting, photography, sculpture, installation, performance, and film. It combines new site-specific commissions with key works from earlier series, encouraging visitors to reconsider how public spaces and monuments shape memory and identity.

“Radical Tenderness is an open conversation about how we can imagine a different public space,” says Argote. “It’s about unlearning inherited systems of power and dreaming of spaces built on openness, care, and solidarity.”

Known for playful, provocative interventions, Argote challenges the authority of monuments and redefines art institutions as places for activism. His works often question who decides which histories are celebrated and which are forgotten, and how art can foster collective healing.

Exhibition highlights include an indoor sculpture garden of plants and weeds as a proposal for an ideal public park; botanical paintings directly on the gallery walls; the complete photographic series Turistas (2012–13), which shows statues of Spanish monarchs and conquistadors dressed in Indigenous ponchos; and the Prague edition of Activissime, a workshop where children share ideas about the present and the future, with the results displayed in the gallery.

About Iván Argote

In 2024, Argote was awarded the Plinth Commission for Dinosaur on New York’s High Line. That year, he also presented a large installation at the Venice Biennale and participated in the Bruges Triennale and Lagos Biennale.

Born in Bogotá, Argote studied Graphic Design, Photography, and New Media at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, later earning an MFA from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His work has been shown at the Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, Berlinische Galerie, and MALBA Museum.

Public commissions include installations for the MASP Museum in São Paulo, Desert X in California, and permanent sculptures for Sorbonne University in Paris and the city of Antwerp. His works are held in collections such as the Guggenheim Museum (New York), LACMA (Los Angeles), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and MACBA (Barcelona).

Iván Argote

Exhibition details

• Iván Argote: Radical Tenderness
• Dates: June 12 – September 7, 2025
• Curator: Leonardo Bigazzi
• Venue: Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague
• Admission: Free

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