Mariah Robertson
Born 1975. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Contact
Gallery: M+B Van Doren Waxter
Studio: mariahrobertsonstudio@gmail.com
Mariah Robertson is a visual 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) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She 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 is currently included in a show with Liz Deschenes and Eileen Quinlan at the Art Institute of Chicago February - August, 2024. Her work was recently included in two 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
Book of Details, a self published artist book had its debut at theb2024 at the NYABF at the table of Van Doren Waxter. A book tour series of events began in Chicago in June 2024 and continue throughout the year including stops in Kansas City, Houston, cities in California and more.
Education
1997 BA University of California, Berkeley, Religious Studies: Buddhism
2005 MFA Yale University, Sculpture
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
Residencies
Central Utah Art Center
MacDowell
Emily Harvey Foundation
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
(Forthcoming) 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 Edwin 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, Cleveland Museum of Art’s 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
Selected Bibliography