Conference Cycle Mikhail Karikis | Great Artists on Campus #4

Mikhail Karikis is an award-winning Greek-British artist based in Lisbon, working with moving image, sound, performance, and other media. Focusing on listening as an artistic strategy and engaging with social and environmental justice, his projects highlight alternative modes of human action and solidarity, while cultivating critical attention, dignity, and tenderness.

Through collaborations with individuals and communities beyond the circles of contemporary art — particularly children, teenagers, young adults, and people with disabilities — Karikis develops socially rooted projects that stimulate an activist imagination and envision futures of self-determination and empowerment.

His work is exhibited internationally at major contemporary art biennials, museums, and film festivals. He is the recipient of the UK’s leading art award, "The Paul Hamlyn Art Award" (2024–2026), and is shortlisted to represent Portugal at the "61st Venice Biennale 2026". He was a finalist for the "Film London Derek Jarman Award" (2016, 2019) and the "Daiwa Art Prize" (2015).

Solo exhibitions include mid-career retrospectives at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2025) and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (2023), as well as presentations at the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, The Showroom London, Tate Liverpool, Whitechapel Gallery, MORI Art Museum Tokyo, and Arnolfini Bristol.

Recent large-scale performances include 'Universe of Solutions' (2024) for the inauguration of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in Braga, and 'Sounds of a Revolution' (2024) at the Grand Auditorium of the Gulbenkian Foundation. He has performed at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Barbican Theatre, with sound works released by Björk, DJ Spooky, UNICEF, and MIT, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3, RAI3, and Radio France.