Camille Henrot’s first public exhibition in New York City places a group of dog sculptures at an entrance to Central Park. Expanding an existing series, the installation includes new outdoor works in bronze, stone, steel, and concrete. Each piece assembles visual references ranging from Saul Steinberg drawings and Tex Avery cartoons to ancient Egyptian sculpture and dog-show competitions.
Across painting, drawing, film, installation, and sculpture, Henrot examines the codes and bonds that shape individual and social life. Her interest in attachment, dependency, and domestication leads her to dogs as highly social animals and loyal companions. The project also celebrates sculptural craft and New York as a site of insistent individual expression. It is curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress.
Born in France in 1978, Henrot is widely regarded as an influential contemporary artist. She received the Silver Lion at the 2013 Venice Biennale for Grosse Fatigue and later the Nam June Paik and Edvard Munch awards. Her work is held by institutions including MoMA, the Guggenheim, and Centre Pompidou. In 2026 she premieres a new film, solo and survey exhibitions, and her first theatrical production.
Camille Henrot: Dogs. Public Art Fund. Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York City, Sept. 12, 2026.
For her first public exhibition in New York City, Camille Henrot brings a group of sculptures of dogs to the entrance of Central Park. Building on an existing series, Henrot’s installation includes new sculptures in a variety of materials suited to the outdoors, including bronze, stone, steel, and concrete. Each work is born out of an accumulation of visual references, including Saul Steinberg drawings, Tex Avery cartoons, ancient Egyptian sculpture, dog show competitions, and more.
Across a virtuosic artistic practice that spans painting, drawing, film, installation, and sculpture, Henrot explores the invisible codes and ties that bind our lives as both individuals and members of society. Henrot’s interest in the nature of attachment, dependency and domestication has drawn her to the subject of dogs, a highly social animal and loyal human companion. At the same time, the exhibition stands as a celebration of sculptural craft and style, reflecting Paris-born Henrot’s love for New York City as a place of insistent individual expression.
Camille Henrot: Dogs is curated by Public Art Fund Senior Curator Melanie Kress.
Camille Henrot (born 1978, France) is recognized as one of the most influential voices in contemporary art today. Over the past twenty years, she has developed a critically acclaimed practice, encompassing drawing, painting, sculpture, installation and film. Inspired by literature, second-hand marketplaces, poetry, cartoons, social media, self-help, and the banality of everyday life, Henrot’s works capture the complexity of living as both private individuals and global citizens in an increasingly connected and over-stimulated world.
In 2013, Henrot received widespread critical acclaim for her film “Grosse Fatigue”, made during a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution and awarded the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013.
Henrot is the recipient of the 2014 Nam June Paik Award and the 2015 Edvard Munch Award, and has participated in the Lyon, Berlin, Sydney and Liverpool Biennials, among others. Henrot has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, including the New Museum, New York; Schinkel Pavilion, Berlin; Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Fondazione Memmo, Rome; and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan, among others. Her work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou, and the National Gallery of Victoria, among others.
In 2026, Henrot premieres her new film In The Veins at the New Museum, New York and LUMA, Arles. She also presents a solo exhibition at The Perimeter in London, and a major performative survey exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary. Henrot’s first theatrical production Commedia dell’Arte will premiere at the Aspen Art Museum’s AIR Festival, a co-commission between Performa, Aspen Art Museum / Wheeler Opera House and LYRA Art Foundation.
