Martha Rosler | Galerie Lelong

Semiotics of the Kitchen (still), 1975

Martha Rosler's practice focuses on issues of the public sphere, addressing cultural and political concerns both domestic and foreign-often through the feminist lens of their impact on the lives of women. For over six decades, Rosler has worked in a variety of media—including video, photography, text, sculpture, performance, and writing—always expanding upon her practice in an ongoing endeavor to incite questions of perception and truth as they relate to an ever-changing sociopolitical landscape. Among the many topics investigated throughout her oeuvre, recurring themes in Rosler's practice include urbanism, spaces of transit, war and national security, and patriarchal expectations of women. Her work invites consideration and critique of the systems governing everyday life, including those that often go unnoticed. In addition to her artistic practice, Rosler's incisive commentary extends to her written work, in published books and essays as well as contributions to newspapers and critical publications.
"I am also not inclined to follow Debord or Duchamp and give up the terrain of art and culture. Certainly, celebration and lifestyle mania forestall critique;
a primary emphasis on enjoyment, fun, or experience precludes the formation of a robust and
exigent public discourse.

But even ruckuses have their place as disruption and intervention; some may see them as being less self-interested than social projects but as full collective projects, while fun remains a term that refers to private experience. There is no reasonable prescription for how, and in what register, to engage with the present conditions of servitude and freedom."
—Martha Rosler
Red and White Stripes (Baghdad Burning), from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, New Series, 2004

Rosler's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions globally, with notable institutional solo presentations including at the Tate Modern, London (2022); Museum of Recent Art (MARe), Bucharest, Romania (2022); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Chile (2019); The Jewish Museum, New York (2018); the Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle (2016); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France (2002); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2000); the New Museum, New York (2000); MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (1999); and the Dia Art Foundation, New York (1989). A retrospective of her work toured five venues in Europe and the United States between 1998 and 2000. Her exhibition on housing, homelessness, and the built environment, which encompasses contributions by many individuals and groups, has been mounted many times throughout the past two decades, including most recently at the MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy (2024). The Martha Rosler Library, a selection of over 7,000 titles in Rosler's personal collection, has toured eight venues across Europe and the United States. Rosler has also published 17 books of photography, art, and writing, in several languages. Her work is featured in scores of public collections globally, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Tate Modern, London, UK; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Rosler is a recipient of the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Guggenheim Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, College Art Association Distinguished Feminist Award, Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spectrum International Prize in Photography, and a United States Artists Nimoy Fellowship, among many others.

Rosler lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where she was born.
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  Martha Rosler: Truth is/is not
  10 April - 10 May 2025 Galerie Lelong Exhibitions
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