AGE: 34
BASED IN: New York, Berlin, and Amsterdam
Growing up in a Roma community in Bosnia, Selma Selman often accompanied her family as they stripped precious metals from discarded items and sorted them at the family’s scrapyard. The ritual has become a recurring motif in her performances at venues including MoMA PS1 and the Venice Biennale. After extracting the metal in front of an audience, she melts it down and recasts it into sculptures—inviting discussions about value, labor, and exchange. A darling of the biennial circuit, she has been featured in Manifesta 14, Documenta 15, and the 2025 Istanbul Biennial.
Tell us about a teacher who changed the way you think about art.
Veso Sovilj—my professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina—is a man who doesn’t talk much. But once, he said, “Selma, if I want to see a good exhibition, I make my own.” I learned many things from him, but the most beautiful lesson was this: If you want to find your place in this world as an artist, you must fight with your knowledge. And that’s exactly what I do.
Imagine someone gives you $150,000 to make anything you want—no strings.
I would give it to my ongoing project and foundation, Get the Heck to School, which provides financial support for Roma girls in my village to complete elementary school, continue to high school, and later university. The goal is to help them become independent women. Even though I’ve been working on this project alone, I have never given up. When I started, only about 20 percent of the girls in my village finished elementary school. Now, that number has risen to nearly 90 percent—almost all of them complete school, and many continue their education further. This is a real transformation of life. Without this support, many of these girls would have been married off at a young age or simply given up on their dreams. I’d give all $150,000 to them—to their education and their future.
What projects do you have coming up that you are especially excited about?
My upcoming performance in which I will destroy the Mercedes I bought as the last gift for my father, who passed away last year. This is my first collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and the performance will be something very personal because it will also be a monument for my father. I am doing an exchange of value and labor with Mercedes-Benz.
What’s an underrated studio tool you can’t live without?
Old T-shirts, because when I paint I make a huge mess, and I never have enough towels. I also like to wear them—they keep me feeling strong.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
Coffee and cigarettes before painting.
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