Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015

New Photography, MoMA’s longstanding exhibition series of recent work in photography, returns this fall in an expanded, biannual format. On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, New Photography is expanding to 19 artists and artist collectives from 14 countries, and includes works made specifically for this exhibition.
Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015 will be on view from November 7, 2015, to March 20, 2016, throughout the entirety of the Museum’s Edward Steichen Photography Galleries, as well as The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby and the Museum’s Bauhaus Staircase. Since its inception in 1985, the New Photography series has introduced the work of nearly 100 artists from around the globe early in their careers, including Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Rineke Dijkstra, Rachel Harrison, and Wolfgang Tillmans. This year’s edition explores contemporary photo-based culture, specifically focusing on connectivity, the circulation of images, information networks, and communication models. Ocean of Images is organized by Quentin Bajac, the Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography, Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator, and Lucy Gallun, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography, MoMA.
Probing the effects of an image-based post-Internet reality, Ocean of Images examines various ways of experiencing the world: through images that are born digitally, made with scanners or lenses in the studio or the real world, presented as still or moving pictures, distributed as zines, morphed into three-dimensional objects, or remixed online. The exhibition’s title refers to the Internet as a vortex of images, a site of piracy, and a system of networks. Ocean of Images presents bodies of work that critically redefine photography as a field of experimentation and intellectual inquiry, where digital and analog, virtual and real dimensions cross over. These artists explore contemporary photo-based culture, specifically focusing on connectivity, the circulation of images, information networks, and communication models.
Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, MoMA will also launch an online platform featuring selections from the archive of the New Photography series, including documents and images from the series' 30-year history.
The artists included are:
Ilit Azoulay (Israeli, b. 1972)
Zbyn?k Baladrán (Czech, b. 1973)
Lucas Blalock (American, b. 1978)
Edson Chagas (Angolan, b. 1977)
Natalie Czech (German, b. 1976)
DIS (Collective, founded U.S., 2010)
Katharina Gaenssler (German, b. 1974)
David Hartt (Canadian, b. 1967)
Mishka Henner (Belgian, b. 1976)
David Horvitz (American, b. 1982)
John Houck (American, b. 1977)
Yuki Kimura (Japanese, b. 1971)
Anouk Kruithof (Dutch, b. 1981)
Basim Magdy (Egyptian, b. 1977)
Katja Novitskova (Estonian, b. 1984)
Marina Pinsky (Russian, b. 1986)
Lele Saveri (Italian, b. 1980)
Indr? Šerpytyt? (Lithuanian, b. 1983)
Lieko Shiga (Japanese, b. 1980)
RELATED EVENTS
Panel Discussion - Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015, 6:00 p.m.
Theater 3 (The Celeste Bartos Theater), mezzanine, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
In conjunction with the exhibition Ocean of Images: New Photography 2015, and on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signature New Photography series, this panel addresses the history and impact of the series and the state of photography in the early 21st century. Participants include curators Quentin Bajac, Roxana Marcoci, and Lucy Gallun; artists Ilit Azoulay, Lucas Blalock, David Hartt, and Katja Novitskova; and artist collective DIS.
Organized by Quentin Bajac, The Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography, Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator, and Lucy Gallun, Assistant Curator, Department of Photography.
Major support for the exhibition is provided by MoMA’s Wallis Annenberg Fund for Innovation in Contemporary Art through the Annenberg Foundation. Generous funding is provided by David Dechman and Michel Mercure. Additional support is provided by Courtney Finch Taylor and by the MoMA Annual Exhibition Fund.
www.moma.org