performance art

noun

: a nontraditional art form often with political or topical themes that typically features a live presentation to an audience or onlookers (as on a street) and draws on such arts as acting, poetry, music, dance, or painting

performance artist noun

Examples of performance art in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

From self-care to performance art, gifting these different experiences will surely bring a smile to someone's face. —Erica Olsen, CBS News, 7 Dec. 2025

Beginning more as a performance art piece, Devo has preached the prevalence of Western society's de-evolution, the concept that humans are evolving to become more primitive, rather than more complex. —Greta Cross, USA Today, 5 Dec. 2025

Rarely has scandal looked so much like performance art. —Michelle Goldberg, Mercury News, 3 Dec. 2025

In this cryptic fantasy thriller, Green plays Emilia, a depressed young woman from London who expresses her pain through extreme and unusual performance art. —Maria Azzurra Volpe, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for performance art

• apart
• depart
• flowchart
• forepart
• impart
• pushcart
• rampart
• redstart
• restart
• subpart
• sweetheart
• upstart