Conference Cycle Great Artists on Campus #1: Mikhail Karikis
The award-winning Greek-British artist, Mikhail Karikis, explores sound, moving image and performance in socially grounded projects
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
Mikhail Karikis is an award-winning Greek-British artist based in Lisbon and London, working with moving image, sound, performance and other media.
His work is presented internationally at major biennials, museums and film festivals. Through collaborations with communities beyond contemporary art circles — particularly children, teenagers, young adults and people with disabilities — Karikis develops socially grounded projects that stimulate an activist imagination and envision futures of self-determination. Centring listening as an artistic strategy and focusing on social and environmental justice, his projects highlight alternative modes of human action and solidarity, cultivating critical attention, dignity and tenderness.
Currently a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Art Award (2024–2026), the UK’s largest prize for artists, he was shortlisted to represent Portugal at the 61st Venice Biennale 2026 and for the Film London Derek Jarman Award (2016, 2019).
Major exhibitions include mid-career retrospectives at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Lisboa (2025), the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (2023), Tate Liverpool (2020) and Whitechapel Gallery London (2018–2019). He has participated in biennials including the Saitama Triennale, Mardin Biennial, British Art Show 8, Sydney Biennale, Manifesta 9 and the 2011 Venice Biennale.
Recent large-scale performances include ‘Universe of Solutions’ for the inauguration of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in Braga and ‘Sons de Uma Revolução’ at Fundação Gulbenkian (both 2024). His sound works are published by Björk, UNICEF and MIT, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Radio France.
Programme
Artist talk followed by Q&A
