Dia Art Foundation has released additional information about its upcoming retrospective of artist Tehching Hsieh, titled “Lifeworks 1978–1999.” The exhibition will open at Dia Beacon on October 4, 2025, and remain on view for two years. This marks the first time all of Hsieh’s major durational works will be presented together, following his donation of 11 key pieces to Dia last year.
Jessica Morgan, Nathalie de Gunzburg Director at Dia, said: “Tehching Hsieh’s extraordinary gift was a profound gesture of trust, establishing Dia as the primary steward of his oeuvre. We are honored to preserve this groundbreaking body of work and, for the first time, present the Lifeworks together in their entirety, as the artist intended. Performance practices have long been central to Dia’s interests. Hsieh’s work is essential to understanding the evolution of these practices and their lasting influence on generations of artists.”
Hsieh is known for blending art and life through extended performances that involved strict routines and personal sacrifice. His projects included living in confinement or without shelter for a year at a time, working with other artists such as Linda Montano while physically connected by rope, abstaining from all art activities for a year, and withholding his art from public view during a thirteen-year period.
The retrospective covers works created between 1978 and 1999. These include five “One Year Performances” followed by “Thirteen Year Plan,” during which he continued making art but did not show it publicly. The exhibition also features documentation from his collaboration with Montano on “Rope Piece,” being shown in full for the first time.
The layout at Dia Beacon follows an architectural plan developed by Hsieh over ten years to illustrate concepts he called “art time” and “life time.” Four galleries are dedicated to each One Year Performance with relevant documentation; other spaces represent subsequent works based on their duration.
Humberto Moro, deputy director of program at Dia and co-curator of the exhibition said: “The impact of Hsieh’s work is unparalleled. It is as urgent and relevant as when it was created decades ago. Presenting Hsieh’s Lifeworks at Dia Beacon offers an opportunity to understand the scale and rigor of his practice, establishing an expansive dialogue with Dia’s history and mission. This landmark exhibition makes the immensity of his durational works tangible, allowing audiences to experience the intensity with which Hsieh understood the passage of time.”
Guest curator Adrian Heathfield added: “Again and again, Hsieh subjected himself to seemingly unbearable states to tease out what is elemental to life, to expose human existence as art. After 40 years in the shadows, these interrelated performances have finally found their ideal form to be reencountered. Walking the halls of Hsieh’s life, his relentless markings of time throw us back into a tense past and forcefully into the conditions of the present, the only time in which we can live.”
A publication accompanying this exhibition will feature new essays by several scholars including Liv Cuniberti and Brian Kuan Wood along with archival materials never before seen by the public; it will be released in fall 2026.
The show is curated by Humberto Moro (Dia), Adrian Heathfield (guest curator), with assistance from Liv Cuniberti.
Support comes from organizations such as Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture along with Hong Foundation and others; public programs are supported by Taipei Cultural Center in New York.
Tehching Hsieh was born in Nanzhou, Taiwan in 1950. He began as a painter before turning exclusively toward performance art after early exhibitions in Taipei during the early 1970s. Notably injured during one piece (“Jump”), he later moved toward endurance-based conceptual works that would become internationally recognized across major museums including MoMA New York and Tate Modern London.
Founded in 1974,Dia Art Foundation supports ambitious artistic projects outside traditional museum settings while maintaining sites like Dia Beacon alongside installations across North America—including Walter De Maria’s The New York Earth Room, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels (link), among others.
All exhibitions at Dia are funded through support such as that provided by Economou Exhibition Fund.
