Carol Bove has made her name transforming steel into malleable, seductive forms that look scrunched, squished, and surprisingly lightweight. The Swiss-born, California-raised sculptor has just taken her biggest stage yet with a rotunda-engulfing career survey now on view at the Guggenheim in New York.
What’s one work of art that got you through an important moment in your life?
I often refer to the wisdom of Fellini. He made three films in succession that, taken together, express a coherent philosophy for an authentic life practice:
(1) Have the courage to have your heart broken repeatedly. From Nights of Cabiria.
(2) Create enough quiet that you can hear your inner voice. From La Dolce Vita.
(3) Avoid respectability. La Dolce Vita.
(4) Don’t put exchange value on your self. La Dolce Vita.
(5) The means and the end are one and the same. From 8½.
What would you be doing if you weren’t working in your field?
I’d like to be a scientist who studies color perception, but would I need to do a lot of fundraising? Maybe I’d be an amateur scientist and a professional social worker.
What’s your biggest vice? Your greatest virtue?
My biggest vice is I love to drive. I’m from California, and I can’t undo my bond with cars. But I never suffer from road rage because I’m very understanding and always see the best in others (my greatest virtue).
Name an influence of yours that might surprise people.
It might not surprise people, but it surprised me when I recently noticed how much I think about Stanley Kubrick. It happened last month when I was working with a photographer and he referred to a lighting condition as Kubrick-y. As soon as I saw Kubrick performing a normal grammatical job, Kubrick was freed from a mysterious realm of total abstraction where he had been long-term lurking.
What do you want to see more of in your industry? Less of?
Less instrumentality! More pointlessness!
What’s something people get wrong about you?
That I prefer a particular pronunciation for my last name.
What’s been the hardest part of your career so far?
What question do you ask yourself most often while you’re making work?
What does it want?
What would you wear to meet your greatest enemy?
I always try to get my enemy to underestimate me, so the particulars depend on the situation. But I tell you, they really never see it coming because I don’t think people read The Art of War these days.
To read more from the 2026 CULT100 honorees, see the full list here.
in your life?
