Madeleine Hatz

Tales from the Underground 2006 pigment, medium, oil on canvas 83 X 111 in.

Madeleine Hatz, a painter and performance artist based in Sweden, was educated at the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. She lived and worked in New York for three decades, and in Beijing for three winters, before returning to Sweden in 2015. Her performance works—often street actions—include an oil spill at GM Plaza, a “Greenwashing Fest” in Stockholm, and a barefoot winter walk across Tiananmen Square dressed in sackcloth. In contrast to these eruptive actions in public, the paintings evolve slowly in the contemplative studio environment. Both paintings and performances are anchored in a deep emotional involvement with our current earthly predicament.