ARTIST profile
Multimedia artist Martine Syms focuses on social commentary, seeking depth and complexity within moving-image.
the dream commission
Martine Syms
Martine Syms (b. 1988, Los Angeles (CA)) obtained a MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson (NY) (2017) and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (IL) (2007). Syms has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humour and social commentary. Using a combination of video, installation and performance, often interwoven with explorations into technique and narrative, Syms examines representations of blackness and its relationship to vernacular, feminist thought, and radical traditions. Syms’s research-based practice frequently references and incorporates theoretical models concerning performed or imposed identities, the power of the gesture, and embedded assumptions concerning gender and racial inequalities.
ARTIST's exhibitions
Martine Syms’s recent solo exhibitions include Boon, Secession, Vienna, 2019; Shame Space, Institute of Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA, 2019; Incense Sweaters & Ice, Graham Foundation, Chicago, 2019; and Projects 106: Martine Syms, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017.
interview with the artist
Artist's Earlier Works
Intro to Threat Modeling, 2019
Credit: © Martine Syms, courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Gregory Carideo.Shame Space, Dialogues: Irena Haiduk + Martine Syms, 2019
Credit: © Martine Syms, courtesy ICA Virginia; Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Technology Residency at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Photo: David Hunter Hale.Shame Space, Dialogues: Irena Haiduk + Martine Syms, 2019
Credit: © Martine Syms, courtesy ICA Virginia; Bridget Donahue Gallery, New York; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Technology Residency at Pioneer Works, Brooklyn. Photo: David Hunter HaleUgly Plymouths, presented by Sadie Coles HQ and Bridget Donahue, 2020
Credit: © Martine Syms, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London, and Bridget Donahue, New York. Photo: Mario de LopezExcerpt from 'Notes On Gesture', 2014
Credit: © Martine Symsmeet other artists
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