Mariah Robertson
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Contact
Gallery: M+B Van Doren Waxter
Studio: mariahrobertsonstudio@gmail.com
Mariah Robertson is an artist known primarily for work experimenting with darkroom techniques and materials. Her practice began in the late 1990's with improvisational performance work inspired by 1970's conceptual art and by an anthropological and philosophical study of various religions. Robertson applies these foundational strategies of inquiry across the photographic process, testing assumptions by inverting the gendered gaze, exploring technical and chemical processes, pushing physical properties to extremes, and challenging the relationship between frame and artwork. She encourages change and mutability by merging proficiency, curiosity, and a dose of knowing humor.
Mariah Robertson (b. 1975) received an MFA from Yale University and a BA from UC Berkeley. Select solo exhibitions include Van Doren Waxter, New York; 11R, New York; Green Gallery, Milwaukee; M+B, Los Angeles. She has been included in exhibitions at institutions such as MoMA, New York, NY and MoMA PS1, New York; International Center of Photography, New York; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, England, and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Robertson's work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, Whitney Museum of American Art, The National Gallery of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art Institute of Chicago and National Museum of Women in the Arts, among others. Her work was featured on the cover of Elton John's 2016 album, Wonderful Crazy Night.
Robertson's work was recently included in three museum shows: The Sky’s the Limit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, October 21, 2023 – February 25, 2024. The Surrealist Impulse at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC, August 12, 2023–January 28, 2024, and The Art Institute of Chicago February - August, 2024.
Education
1997 BA University of California, Berkeley, Religious Studies: Buddhism
2005 MFA Yale University, Sculpture
Residencies
Central Utah Art Center
MacDowell
Emily Harvey Foundation
Book of Details Tour 2024-2025
June 8, 2024 with Grace Deveney, the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Associate Curator, Photography and Media at the Art Institute of Chicago hosted by Pink & Tan, Evanston, IL
October 19, 2024 with Ken Miller at Halsey Mckay Gallery, East Hampton, NY
November 9, 2024 with Josie Miner at the Sandisfield Art Center, Sandisfield, MA
November 20, 2024 with Rashawn Griffin & Sean Nash at Nana, Kansas City, KC
April 30, 2025 with Francesca Willmot at Amatoria Fine Art Books, Sacramento, CA
TBA Spring 2025 with Leslie Hewitt at Basket Books in Houston, TX
TBA 2025 San Francisco, CA & LA CA
Solo Exhibitions
2024 Many Mini Moons, Halsey McKay Gallery
Libro de Detalles, Al Filo De Agua, La Cruz De Huanacaxtle, Mexico
2023 Everything counts & local reality, Van Doren Waxter Gallery, New York, NY
2022 CUT UP Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
Eggs, Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI
2021 Repetition and Difference, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Repetition and Difference, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY
2019 Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
2018 Fun Packed Holiday, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
The Hydra, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
2017 Chaos Power Center, 11R, New York, NY
2016 Mariah Robertson, 11R, New York, NY
2015 Photography Lovers’ Peninsula, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
2013 Permanent Puberty, American Contemporary, New York, NY
2012 Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (performance) Kogod Courtyard, Washington, DC (performance)
Let’s Change, Grand Arts, Kansas City, MO
2011 Central Utah Art Center, Ephraim, UT
BALTIC Centre, curated by Laurence Sillars, Gateshead, UK
HOT TROPICAL RAIN JAM, Museum 52, New York, NY
MoMA PS1, Long Island City, NY (performance)
2010 ART FORUM, Berlin, Germany
The Joy of C-Prints, Noma Gallery, San Francisco CA
2009 Take Better Pictures, Museum 52, New York, NY
I Am Passions, Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY
Guild & Greyshkul, New York, NY (Performance)
2007 Nudes, Still Lives and Landscapes, Guild & Greyshkul, New York, NY
2006 Please lie down and take a nap with me in my grave, Guild & Greyshkul, New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 (Forthcoming) Women in Photography, Sandisfield Arts Center, Sandisfield, MA
Group Shop, Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York, NY
Collaborations and Bootlegs: 10 Years of F Magazine, at Pazda Butler Gallery in Houston, TX
Painting Deconstructed curated by Leeza Meksin, Ortega Y Gasset, New York, NY
Liz Deschenes, Eileen Quinlan & Mariah Robertson, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL
Ardent Mystic: Morris Graves, Mariah Robertson and Letha Wilson, Heroes Gallery in residence at Studio e Gallery, Seattle, WA
2023 The Sky’s the Limit, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
The Surrealist Impulse, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Direct Contact: Cameraless Photography Now, Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Museum at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Antonia Kuo and Mariah Robertson, F, Houston, TX
2021 Ten Years, Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY
End of The Season, Soft Network, East Hampton, NY
ONE: Unique Photo-Based Images, Transformer Station, Cleveland, Ohio
2019 After Virginia, Chart, New York, NY
Chroma, Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY
Women in Colour, Galerie Miranda, Paris, France
CIRCUS OF BOOKS, Fierman Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Photoplay: Lucid Objects (from the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection), Paris Photo, Paris, France
2016 Cut-Up, Franklin Street Works, Stamford, CT
New Photography, BAM, New York, NY
Island States, Tops Gallery, Memphis, TN
This is a Photograph, Penland Gallery, Penland, NC Surrogates, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver BC
World Made By Hand, Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY
Vapegoat Rising, Arturo Bandini, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Russian Doll, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
Panic Pants, organized by Tatiana Kronberg, Essex Flowers, New York, NY
Back to the Real, David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO
Part Picture, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, ON
Jessica Eaton, Mariah Robertson, Alison Rossiter, Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH
Picture/Thing, Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts, Middletown, CT
Color Fields, Sandra and David Bakalar Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA
2014 Modern Alchemy: Experiments in Photography, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
CHEM 101: The Science of Photography, The William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
The Material Image, curated by Debra Singer, Marianne Boesky Gallery, NewYork, NY
By Proxy, James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY
Me and Benjamin, curated by M+B, Galerie Xippas, Paris, France
Broken Surface Artificial Matter, Halsey McKay Gallery, New York, NY
Aggregate Exposure, George Lawson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Process Priority, Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston, MA
A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Outside the Lines: Rites of Spring, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX
What is a Photograph?, International Center of Photography, New York, NY
2013 19 New Acquisitions in Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
How Things are Made (an exhibition in 3 parts), Spot Welders, New York, NY
Old Black, Team Gallery, New York, NY
Under My Skin, Flowers Gallery, New York, NY
Desire, Yancey Richardson, New York, NY
2012 Photography, Sculpture, Figure, M+B, Los Angeles, CA
Out of Focus, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Manscape: Man as Subject and Object, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX
The Space in Between, Steven Zevitas, Boston, MA
Second Nature: Abstract Photography Then and Now, de Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
Hi Jack!, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY
Space Invaders, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York, NY
The Hort Family Collection, New York, NY
Someone Puts Together A Pineapple, Acme, Los Angeles, CA
2011 Cry Baby Presents, Los Angeles, CA
Fight or Flight, curated by Justin Lieberman, Franklin Parrasch, New York, NY
Process(ing), Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
Perfectly Damaged, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY
Against The Way Things Go, Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert, Inc., New York, NY
Channel to the New Image, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Greater New York, MoMA PS1, Long Island City,
New York Skins, OHWOW Gallery, Miami, FL
50 Artists Photograph the Future, Higher Pictures, New York, NY
Mexican Blanket, Museum 52, London, UK
Color as Form: Playing the Spectrum, Silver Eye Centre for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA
A World Like Tomorrow Wears Things Out, Sikkema Jenkins, New York, NY
IN SIDE OUT, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY
Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, NY
Transfer Function, Zieher Smith, New York, NY
2009 XOXO, Apartment Show, Brooklyn, NY
If the Dogs are Barking, Apartment Show at Artists Space, New York, NY Experimental Photography, Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY
The Company Presents: A Video Screening, Miami Beach, FL
Wrong: A Program of Text and Image, Eighth Veil, Los Angeles, CA
I’m Feeling Lucky, P.P.O.W Gallery, New York, NY
On From Here, Guild & Greyshkul, New York, NY
2008 Sonata for Executioner and Various Young Women, André Schlechtriem Contemporary, New York, NY
Deadliest Catch: Hamptons, CORE: Hamptons, Southampton, NY
From Viennese Actionism to the Triumph of Vince Young, CRG Gallery, New York, NY
FRIENDLY, organized by Sam Clagnaz and Tommy Hartung, New York, NY
2007 Divine Find, Stonefox Artspace, New York, NY
A Moving World, Gallery w52, New York, NY
Where To: Artists Environ a Cab, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
Practical F/X, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY
STUFF: International Contemporary Art from the Collection of Burt Aaron, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, MI
2006 Haunted States, Grand Arts, Kansas City, KS
The Truth About Susan Gescheidle, The Centre of Attention, Chicago, IL
The Seventh Side of the Die, Alona Kagan Gallery, New York, NY
Help Yourself, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, BC
2005 Loop Video Festival, Barcelona, Spain
Video Pleasures of the East Worth Ryder Gallery, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Early February, Green Hall Gallery, New Haven, CT
Community Theater Art Space Annex, New Haven, CT
2003 Great Indoors, Walter Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2002 Shit Hot Lucky, Tackle Gallery, Oakland, CA
Element of the Temporary Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
2001 Just Short Raid Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Red Wine & High Heels Lair of the Minotaur, San Francisco, CA
Art21 CloseUp
Matthew Porter’s Podcast Episode #1
Gorky’s Granddaughter Studio Visit
Selected Bibliography
The women’s art museum is back. Washington Post, Phillip Kennicott, October 20, 2023
Goings On About Town: Mariah Robertson, The New Yorker, Johanna Fateman, October 19, 2020
Mariah Robertson, Art in America, Eloise Macwell, May 2017
Rappers in the Museum, LA Weekly, Catherine Wagley, April 2015
MARIAH ROBERTSON’S VIGOROUS TUSSLE WITH PHOTOGRAPHY. Los Angeles Times, Leah Ollman, March 12, 2015
5 Artists to Watch at Paris Photo LA's Solo Booths, Blouin Artinfo, April 25, 2014
What Is a Photograph?, Artforum, Gabriel H. Sanchez, March 1, 2014
Digital, Analog and Waterlogged, The New York Times, Ken Johnson, January 30, 2014
Mariah Robertson's Unplanning, Interview, Rachel Small, October 31, 2013
Nothing Square About These Pics, The Kansas City Star, Alice Thorson, February 24, 2012
Mariah Robertson "Let's Change", Huffington Post Arts, February 23, 2012
New York Close Up, ART21, June 27, 2011
Mariah Robertson, Art in America, Stephen Maine, January 2010
Mariah Robertson ‘I Am Passions’, The New York Times, Karen Rosenberg, October 23, 2009
See Mariah Robertson’s Glamorous Photograms, New York Magazine, Emma Pearse, October 16, 2009
Selected Catalogues & Texts
Direct Contact: Cameraless Photography Now
by Lauren Richman
Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art Indiana University PDF
The Photograph as Contemporary Art
by Charlotte Cotton
Thames & Hudson PDF
In Process: Contemporary Photographers Rethinking Their Medium
by Mark David Nevins
Selections from the Mark D. Nevins Collection PDF
Grand Arts 1995-2015, Problems and Provocations
by Stacy Switzer & Annie Fischer
Grand Arts Kansas City PDF
What is a Photograph?
by Carol Squiers
International Center of Photography PDF
Out of Focus: Photography
by William A. Ewing
Saatchi Gallery
& Booth-Clibborn Editions PDF
Greater New York 2010
by Klaus Biesenbach, Connie Butler & Neville Wakefield
MoMA PS1 & The Museum of Modern Art PDF
Exploring Color Photography:
From Film to Pixels
by Robert Hirsch
Focal Press PDF
Public Collections
Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bidwell Collection, Cleveland, OH
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH
Sir Elton John Photography Collection, London, England George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
JP Morgan Chase Art Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Museum at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Swope Art Museum, Terre Haute, IN
UBS Art Collection, New York, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY