New York, NY—The International Center of Photography announced the ICP summer exhibition. ICP will present a solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist Yto Barrada.
“Barrada has kept a deep commitment to photography and image making throughout her career, while always questioning the boundaries of these categories and their relationship to painting, sculpture, craft and the unexplored origins of a modernist vocabulary,” commented Curator Elisabeth Sherman. “These investigations, coupled with her uncovering of hidden histories and their shaping of our present, make Barrada one of the most important artists of her generation.”
ICP Summer Exhibition
Yto Barrada: Part-time Abstractionist will be on view May 22 to September 2, 2024. It is a survey of 20 years of Barrada’s work in photography. Further, it will explore her investigations into photography and abstraction, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes are consistent throughout Barrada’s work. Moreover, they offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society.
In addition, a specific focus on play, childhood and learning will course throughout the show. It will include works from her found-object photogram series. They include Bonbon (2016-17), colorful, abstract works made with candy wrappers; Blockhead Toy (2017); printed with a child’s set of blocks; as well as Practice Piece (2017), contact prints of found sewing lessons. ICP will also exhibit her work with homemade rural North African toys from the collection of the Musée du quai Branly, Paris.
Furthermore, in acknowledgement of ICP’s school and active darkroom classes, many of these series use alternative darkroom processes. ICP will also include the more recent Untitled (burning and dodging tools, 2021).
Additionally, Yto Barrada: Part Time Abstractionist is the first exhibition in a new series focusing on alumni of ICP’s school. Barrada graduated from ICP’s Full-Time Documentary program in 1996. The exhibition is curated by Elisabeth Sherman, senior curator and director of Exhibitions and Collections at ICP.
Yto Barrada
Barrada (b. 1971, Paris) is a Moroccan-French artist. She is recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives. She engages with the performativity of archival practices as well as public interventions. Barradaʼs installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalized narratives. 
In 2006, Barrada founded the artist-run Cinémathèque de Tanger. North Africa’s first cinema cultural center, it is now an internationally appreciated institution. Her work has exhibited in museums and galleries globally.
The International Center of Photography is located at 79 Essex Street, New York, NY.
