Hajnal Németh works at the intersection of visual art and music. Her interdisciplinary practice includes performances, moving-image formats, and site-specific audiovisual installations. Most of her works draw on text quotations from various sources, such as poems, scores, archival documents, as well as on her own writings. Her innovative approach to time, rhythm, and intonation, along with playful questioning of structures of meaning, often manifest in minimalist interventions performed on existing materials, such as texts, objects, musical works, the environment, or current cultures. In ongoing collaborations with performers from various fields, she experiments with the arbitrary construction and deconstruction of contexts. These process-based works—which begin with scripts and then evolve through impulses and improvisational methods during the development phase—are often realized in multiple versions.

Németh was born in 1972 in Hungary, she received her MA at the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts in 2000, since 2002 she lives and works in Berlin.

Her work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions at renowned art institutions, including: Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2026); Blinken OSA Archivum, Budapest (2025, 2013); Museum Ostwall, Dortmund (2023); n.b.k. – Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin (2021); Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (2022, 2020, 2016, 2008, 2003); MODEM – Centre for Modern and Contemporary Arts, Debrecen (2019); Centre d’art contemporain, Meymac (2018); Kunsthalle Emden (2017); Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2016); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015, 2012); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2014); Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art (2014); Picasso Museum, Barcelona (2011); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2010); Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2010); mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; (2009); Temporären Kunsthalle Berlin (2008); MAMC – Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, St-Etienne (2008); The Kitchen, New York (2006); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2005); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2004); Tate Modern, London (2004); SAM – Singapore Art Museum (2004); TENT, Rotterdam (2002); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2001); Casino Luxembourg (2001); ICA – Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2001); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2000).

She presented her installation in a solo exhibition at the Hungarian pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011. In addition, she was featured at the Berlin Biennale in 2001, the Vienna Biennale in 2006 and the OFF-Biennale in Budapest in 2015

Her work was nominated for the Nam June Paik Award in 2010. She received Grants and Awards such as: Grant of Gwaertler Stiftung, Basel, 2024; Grant of Hans und Charlotte Krull Stiftung, Berlin, 2023; Research Grant of Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa, Berlin, 2021; Leopold Bloom Art Award, Hungary, 2017; Residence Grant at Villa Serpentara, Olevano Romano, Italy, from Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 2013; Grant of Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, 2012; AICA Award, Hungary, 2011.

In 2020 Nemeth founded YELLOW SOLO, a nonprofit initiative in Berlin for time- and process-based artistic formats that explore musical systems and references in a visual art context. The program consists of a series of concerts and performances taking place at various venues.

Detailed CV

* * *