Colette Lumiere is a trailblazer whose vast and enduring body of work has both innovated and defied the categories of street art, installation, performance, mixed media works, staged photography, and painting from the early 1970s through the present. Moving fluidly between the public sphere and her own private space, Colette’s work embraces an unapologetic eroticism and effete femininity that short-circuits feminist politics. Channeling various heroines throughout history in performances and staged photographs, and wearing custom clothing on a daily basis, Colette has created an individual mythology in which the line between art and life is largely indiscernible. Throughout her career, Colette has become known for her creation of “living personas,” placing herself at the center of performances and installations that challenge traditional gender roles and societal expectations. These include Justine of the Colette is Dead Co., also known as Justine & the Victorian Punks (Reverse Pop Series, 1978 – 1983); Mata Hari and the Stolen Potatoes (Berlin, 1984 – 1986); Countess Reichenbach, as part of her Bavarian Adventure (1986 – 1991); the House of Olympia (1991 – 2001); and Post 9/11 Lumiere (Maison Lumiere, 2001 – 2007), which she renamed Laboratoire Lumiere after losing her Pearl Street atelier. Her ever-shifting personas allow Colette to embody and explore different aspects of herself and her art.

Recent solo exhibitions and presentations include Stories from My Life, Galeria Monopol, Warsaw (2025); Everything She Touches Turns To Gold, Company Gallery, New York (2025); Souvenirs de Voyage, Art Explora, Paris (2024); Horror Vacui, XENOMANIA, New York (2023 – 2024); Recently Discovered Ruins of a Dream, presented by Company Gallery at Art Basel (2023); and Notes on Baroque Living: Colette and Her Living Environment, 1972–1983, Company Gallery, New York (2021 – 2022). She has presented her work at Gropius Bau, Berlin; Museion, Bolzano; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; and the New Museum, New York. She participated in the Paris Biennial (1977), Venice Biennale (1984) and Montreal Biennial (2002). Colette has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2016), a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant (2004) and support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her residencies include Art Explora – Cité internationale des arts, Paris (2023 – 2024), and the Marie Walsh-Sharpe Art Foundation’s Space Program, New York (2008 – 2009). In 1984, she was invited by the DAAD to live in Berlin for a year, where she remained for another year and created sets and costumes for the Berlin Opera in 1985. Colette’s artwork is in collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; and the Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa.