Penelope Umbrico
Encyclopedia
Penelope Umbrico is an artist best known for appropriating images found using search engines and picture sharing websites.
in New York.
She has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography
, NY; LMAKprojects, NY; Julie Saul Gallery, NY; Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
, AL; and P/M Gallery, Toronto.
Her project "Suns from Flickr " started in 2006 when she found 541,795 pictures of sunsets searching the word “sunset” on the photo-sharing web site Flickr
while looking for the most photographed subject (which the sunset turned out to be). She took just the suns from these pictures and made snapshot prints of them.
For each installation, the title reflects the number of hits she gets searching "sunset" on Flickr at the time – for example, the first installation was “541,795 Suns From Flickr” in 2006; subsequent installations were: “2303057 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 9/25/07” (2007); “3,221,717 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 3/31/08” (2008); “5,911,253 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 8/03/09” (2009) - the title itself becoming a comment on the ever increasing use of web-based photo communities and a reflection of the collective content there. And since this number only lasts an instant, its recording is analogous to the act of photographing the sunset itself.
Umbrico says: “I think it's peculiar that the sun, the quintessential life giver, constant in our lives, symbol of enlightenment, spirituality, eternity, all things unreachable and ephemeral, omnipotent provider of optimism and vitamin D… and so ubiquitously photographed, is now subsumed to the internet, the most virtual of spaces equally infinite but within a closed electrical circuit.”
Umbrico has participated in numerous group exhibitions including those at MoMA PS1, NY; MassMoCA, MA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
, CA; The Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; The Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany; Museum of Modern Art
, NY; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
, Cambridge; Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
, NY; International Center of Photography
, NY, among others.
Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
, the International Center of Photography
, the Museum of Contemporary Photography
, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
, the Tampa Museum of Art
, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Umbrico is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award, an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Catalogue Project Grant, and a Harvestworks Scholar Fellowship. She is currently a member of faculty at Bard College
Summer MFA (Chair of MFA Photography from 2004–2010), and she is a core faculty member at the School of Visual Arts
MFA Photography Video and Related Media in NYC.
In her work, Umbrico explores the connection between the virtual and the natural, the private and the public, the distinctive and the superfluous.
Her work has recently been featured in the New York Times Magazine, on the cover and inside spreads accompanying "Ghosts In the Machine", on January 9, 2011.
Her first monograph, "Penelope Umbrico (photographs)", was published in the spring of 2011 by Aperture.
• 2011: Laureate from The Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award.
Education and career
Penelope Umbrico received her O.A.C.A. at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada in 1980. She obtained her M.F.A. in 1989 at the School of Visual ArtsSchool of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in New York.
She has had solo exhibitions at the International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, NY; LMAKprojects, NY; Julie Saul Gallery, NY; Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. For seventy years, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts has been a showcase for the visual arts in Central Alabama...
, AL; and P/M Gallery, Toronto.
Her project "Suns from Flickr " started in 2006 when she found 541,795 pictures of sunsets searching the word “sunset” on the photo-sharing web site Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
while looking for the most photographed subject (which the sunset turned out to be). She took just the suns from these pictures and made snapshot prints of them.
For each installation, the title reflects the number of hits she gets searching "sunset" on Flickr at the time – for example, the first installation was “541,795 Suns From Flickr” in 2006; subsequent installations were: “2303057 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 9/25/07” (2007); “3,221,717 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 3/31/08” (2008); “5,911,253 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 8/03/09” (2009) - the title itself becoming a comment on the ever increasing use of web-based photo communities and a reflection of the collective content there. And since this number only lasts an instant, its recording is analogous to the act of photographing the sunset itself.
Umbrico says: “I think it's peculiar that the sun, the quintessential life giver, constant in our lives, symbol of enlightenment, spirituality, eternity, all things unreachable and ephemeral, omnipotent provider of optimism and vitamin D… and so ubiquitously photographed, is now subsumed to the internet, the most virtual of spaces equally infinite but within a closed electrical circuit.”
Umbrico has participated in numerous group exhibitions including those at MoMA PS1, NY; MassMoCA, MA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, CA; The Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; The Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany; Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, NY; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia; Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the only building actually built by Le Corbusier in the United States, and one of only two in the Americas...
, Cambridge; Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
, NY; International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, NY, among others.
Her work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, the International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
, the Museum of Contemporary Photography
Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography was founded in 1984 by Columbia College Chicago. It is well known for an active program and curating which discovers many emerging and mid-career artists...
, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th century art...
, the Tampa Museum of Art
Tampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. The museum exhibits 20th-century fine art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. It opened in 1979 on the banks of Hillsborough River.- Museum History :...
, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Umbrico is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists Fellowship, an Anonymous Was A Woman Award, an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts Catalogue Project Grant, and a Harvestworks Scholar Fellowship. She is currently a member of faculty at Bard College
Bard College
Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...
Summer MFA (Chair of MFA Photography from 2004–2010), and she is a core faculty member at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
MFA Photography Video and Related Media in NYC.
In her work, Umbrico explores the connection between the virtual and the natural, the private and the public, the distinctive and the superfluous.
Her work has recently been featured in the New York Times Magazine, on the cover and inside spreads accompanying "Ghosts In the Machine", on January 9, 2011.
Her first monograph, "Penelope Umbrico (photographs)", was published in the spring of 2011 by Aperture.
Exhibition
• 2011 : Exhibition at Rencontres d’Arles Festival, France.• 2011: Laureate from The Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award.
External links
- http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1811
- http://rhizome.org/object.php?16641
- http://www.ubu.com/contemp/umbrico/index.html
- http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/08/15/img-mgmt-our-new-library/
- http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/reviews/penelope-umbrico/
- http://www.db-artmag.com/en/60/news/penelope-umbrico-new-deutsche-bank-nyfa-fellow/