Collection: ORLAN

ORLAN (born 1947, France) is a French artist whose practice spans performance, surgery, photography, video, installation and writing. Working under the name ORLAN since the early 1970s, she is best known for the Carnal Art series of surgical performances undertaken between 1990 and 1993, in which she underwent a sequence of operations to alter her face according to canonical representations of female beauty from Western art history. The surgeries were performed as live events, filmed and transmitted internationally. ORLAN has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Documenta and major institutions worldwide, and her work is held in numerous public collections. Her autobiography, Strip-Tease: All About My Life All About My Art, was published in French by Gallimard in 2021 and in English by The Everyday Press in 2024.