Remembering Marijke De Roover, Sliman Mansour, and Fabrizio Plessi
This week, we honor a feminist Belgian performance artist, an icon of Palestinian liberation, and an Italian video art pioneer.
In Memoriam is published every Wednesday afternoon and honors those we recently lost in the art world.
Marijke De Roover (1990–2026)
Belgian performance artist
The Belgian artist drew on queer and feminist theories, exploring love, social hierarchies, and institutional power in performances that combined references to karaoke, Disney movies, and memes. She showed at institutions such as Centre Pompidou, the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, ARCADE in London, and more.
"Marijke was a great talent," Nieck de Bruijn, founder of Upstream Gallery in Amsterdam, which represented the artist, told Hyperallergic. "Her unique position in the field of queer and feminist performances brought important issues about love, relationships, feminism and heteronormativity into the spotlight with great humor. In her far too short career, she left a lasting impression on contemporary art and feminist and LGBTQAI+ communities."
Sliman Mansour (1947–2026)
Painter of Palestinian hope
Despite being jailed, beaten, and threatened by the Israeli government, Mansour remained steadfast in affirming human rights through his paintings. He is perhaps best known for the work “Camel of Hardships” (1973), depicting an elderly Palestinian man straining under the weight of the city of Jerusalem on his back, which became an icon for Palestinian liberation.
Margaret Barwick (1931–2026)
Champion of the Cayman Islands visual arts community
The artist, landscape designer, and arts administrator shaped some of the Cayman Islands' most famed gardens and played a crucial role in growing its visual arts community. She chaired the Visual Arts Society from 1979–80, and headed the territory's first entry into the Caribbean Festival of Arts, CARIFESTA IV, in Barbados, in 1981.
