Hi, I’m Noemi Gunea, a London based Romanian performance artist.
I make art about wellness, ideology, and the digestive system. Sometimes there’s meditation. Sometimes there’s screaming. At best of times, there’s both.
I trained in performance at Central Saint Martins and as an actor at the National Theatre Conservatoire in Paris, but most of what I know comes through my gut, which I feed exquisitely well and urge you to do the same.
Current artworld trends would call me a creative health practitioner, but I’d rather go for lover of fermented goods. My way of being and making is influenced by my practice as an improviser and yoga teacher.
I care about your gut and about your emotional wellbeing. I aim to create spaces where ambiguity and curiosity help us connect deeply to ourselves and to each other, so that we break the cycle of polarity and transform the world inside and around us. My plan is to be radically optimistic, yet still critical and edgy.
I’ve shown work at the British Museum, Tate Modern, Royal Academy of Arts, South London Gallery, Arebyte Gallery, Pleasance Theatre, BAC and CPT.
I’ve been on shortlists for New Contemporaries (2025,2024), UK New Artist of the Year (2022), BBC Audio Drama Award (2020), Aesthetica Prize (2019). I would appreciate a prize soon, ideally a Turner.
WORKS TIMELINE
2025 ‘Zen and Zeros’ performance shortlisted for New Contemporaries and shown at New Art Exchange Nottingham
2025 ‘We give the sky its colours’ novel shortlisted for W&A Working Class Writers Prize
2024 Yin Yoga with Balkan music performance at Pushkin House
2024 Exhibition of prints ‘Mother is a way of moving’ St Peter’s Church, Derby
2024 Artist in Residence with UKNA ‘Take Place’ in Belper
2024 Zen and Zeros (work in progress) shown at Camden People’s Theatre and Wimbledon College of Arts
2023 Artist in Residence for King’s College London
2023 SEEDED Artist in Residence for London College of Fashion
2023 ‘Post-soviet Tarot readings’ Nunnery Gallery and in Rotherham at the Palace of Possibility
2022 ‘Food Resilience’ collab with Dana Olarescu, Calthorpe Community Gardens
2022 ‘Critical Dance’ collab with Dana Olarescu and Anca Dimofte, Chisenhale Dance Space
2021 ‘Miss the Met’ at the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival of Philosophy in Hampstead Heath
2021 ‘Basic Beach’ in London Fields
2021 ‘Sounds good to me’ on Ridley Road and Roman Road
2021 ‘Summer Night’ for Creativity, Culture and Capital, commissioned by Nesta
2020 ‘Free Your Mind’ - radio play shortlisted for BBC Audio Drama Award *
2019 ‘Boiling Point’ Crypt Gallery
2019 ‘She Dances’ Camden People’s Theatre x British Library *
2019 ‘Give me a hand’ Tate Exchange
2017 ‘Pillow Pop Girls’ Arebyte Gallery *
2017 ‘Picture This’ British Museum *
2016 ‘Bal du passe’ Royal Academy of Arts *
*projects created as part of performance duo Cheap Thrills
2025 ‘Zen and Zeros’ performance shortlisted for New Contemporaries and shown at New Art Exchange Nottingham
2025 ‘We give the sky its colours’ novel shortlisted for W&A Working Class Writers Prize
2024 Yin Yoga with Balkan music performance at Pushkin House
2024 Exhibition of prints ‘Mother is a way of moving’ St Peter’s Church, Derby
2024 Artist in Residence with UKNA ‘Take Place’ in Belper
2024 Zen and Zeros (work in progress) shown at Camden People’s Theatre and Wimbledon College of Arts
2023 Artist in Residence for King’s College London
2023 SEEDED Artist in Residence for London College of Fashion
2023 ‘Post-soviet Tarot readings’ Nunnery Gallery and in Rotherham at the Palace of Possibility
2022 ‘Food Resilience’ collab with Dana Olarescu, Calthorpe Community Gardens
2022 ‘Critical Dance’ collab with Dana Olarescu and Anca Dimofte, Chisenhale Dance Space
2021 ‘Miss the Met’ at the HowTheLightGetsIn Festival of Philosophy in Hampstead Heath
2021 ‘Basic Beach’ in London Fields
2021 ‘Sounds good to me’ on Ridley Road and Roman Road
2021 ‘Summer Night’ for Creativity, Culture and Capital, commissioned by Nesta
2020 ‘Free Your Mind’ - radio play shortlisted for BBC Audio Drama Award *
2019 ‘Boiling Point’ Crypt Gallery
2019 ‘She Dances’ Camden People’s Theatre x British Library *
2019 ‘Give me a hand’ Tate Exchange
2017 ‘Pillow Pop Girls’ Arebyte Gallery *
2017 ‘Picture This’ British Museum *
2016 ‘Bal du passe’ Royal Academy of Arts *
*projects created as part of performance duo Cheap Thrills