Born in Grenoble in 1964, Carole Benzaken lives and works in Paris (France).
A 1990 graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Carole Benzaken made a remarkable entrance on the art scene with her exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in 1994.
Winner of the 2004 Marcel Duchamp Prize, she presented Search for the New Land at Espace 315 at the Centre Pompidou. Carole Benzaken's work has been the subject of numerous solo show, such as the monographic exhibition at the Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme in Paris in 2011, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in spring 2014, and at the BWA Contemporary Art Gallery in Katowice, Poland, in fall 2015. She also had solo exhibitions at the prestigious Carré Saint-Anne in Montpellier and at the Museum Slaskie in Katowice, Poland, in 2016. The Musée de Louviers dedicated a major exhibition to her in 2017. In 2019, her work was the subject of solo shows in the spring at the Abbaye de Cluny—invited by the Centre des Monuments Nationaux—and during the summer at the Château de Tournon in Tournon-sur-Rhône.
She presented the in situ installation entitled Châteaux d'eau at La Caserne in Paris in 2023; then in 2024, Carole Benzaken was the guest artist for the eighth opus of the Dialogues Inattendus at the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, before presenting Rien de nouveau sous le soleil at the Musée de Tessé (Le Mans) in 2025. In 2026, she will present a monographic exhibition at La Malmaison (Cannes).
She has had significant exhibitions in prestigious institutions, including Invitation au Voyage - 15 ans du Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2015 at La Centrale (Belgium), Miss Dior in 2015 (Beijing, China), Une spiritualité au féminin in 2013 at the Musée d'Art Sacré (Dijon, Musée du Hiéron, Paray-le Monial, France), Palmiers, palmes et palmettes in 2013 at the Musée Masséna (Nice, France), Elles@centrepompidou in 2009 at the Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Contemporary Cool and Collected in 2007 at the Mint Museum of Art, (Charlotte, USA), Eye on Europe: Prints, books and multiples, 1960 to now in 2007 at MOMA (New-York, USA).
Carole Benzaken's work can be found in prestigious public and private collections, including the Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK), the Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA), the Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val de Marne (MAC VAL-Vitry, France), the Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain (Alsace, France), le Musée national d'art moderne (Paris, France), le Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (France), le Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain (Midi- Pyrénées, France), la Fondation Cartier (Paris, France), le Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain d'Ile de France (France), Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain (Auvergne, France), la Collection Fondation LVMH (France).
His work has also been the subject of a number of public commissions, including a tapestry for the Mobilier National in 1998, stained glass windows for the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Varennes-Jarcy in 1997-2001, and a monumental backlit glass polyptych for the hall at 32, rue Blanche in Paris, scheduled for 2009-2012.
Carole Benzaken has won numerous awards and distinctions, including the Albert Rocheron Prize in 1991, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in 1998, the Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2008, the Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2011 and the Officier de l'ordre national du Mérite in 2023.
Carole Benzaken has been represented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels, since 1993.