Miriam Cahn, a lifelong fighter for gender equality, was born in 1949 in Basel, Switzerland, to a Jewish immigrant family with a father who was a dealer in art and antiques and a mother who was a music-loving homemaker. Cahn grew up in an artistic family. From her wall murals in the 1970s to her ongoing series of oil paintings, Cahn embarked on an artistic career in 1976 that saw her translate emotion into the language of painting, her aggressive brushwork and intense colors conveying the artist’s uncompromising response to the social reality around her. Cahn's works are on view in art museums and galleries around the world, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Spain, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, the Haus der Kunst in Munich and the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing, among others. Not only did she represent Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1984, but her solo exhibition, at the documenta 14 in 2017, have established her reputation as an important figure in contemporary art history.