ARTCESTRYTaking Back Our Space: bodies in photographs, to May 2027
Eight artists explore bodies and space in photographs at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The New York show runs until 2 May 2027.
- Dates
- Until 2 May 2027
- Where
- Second floor, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Why it matters
The show sets a 1977 photo project beside seven later artists. You can see how old questions about bodies and room still shape new art.
What can a 1977 photo project say to artists working today? The museum answers by hanging it beside the work of seven contemporary artists. The show is called Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives. It fills second-floor galleries in New York until 2 May 2027.
Marianne Wex made the 1977 work. Its full title is Let's Take Back Our Space: "Female" and "Male" Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures. The museum acquired the whole project in 2018.
The context
Seven artists share the walls with Wex. They are Nona Faustine, Martine Gutierrez, K8 Hardy, Yuki Kihara, Joiri Minaya, Paulina Olowska and Wendy Red Star. MoMA says all eight use photography to explore how bodies relate to space. Roxana Marcoci organized the show with Caitlin Ryan and Ekalan Hou, the page lists. Leadership support comes from the William Randolph Hearst Endowment Fund for Photography.
What hangs in the galleries
Here are five of the works the page lists.
- Wendy Red Star, Catalogue Number 1944.26, from the series Accession, 2019
- Joiri Minaya, Wake, 2022
- K8 Hardy, Position Series (detail), 2007 to 2012, printed in 2017
- Paulina Olowska, Body Movement Alphabet Studies (detail), 2007
- Yuki Kihara, Two Fa'afafine (after Gauguin), from the series Paradise Camp, 2020
One work, one courthouse
Faustine's 2013 photograph was made at Tweed Courthouse in New York. Aperture ran the image in a tribute to her in April 2025. Delphine Sims, a photography curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, wrote that piece.
Faustine's series White Shoes became her first book, published by MACK in 2021, Sims notes. She often worked with her sister Channon, who pressed the shutter as Faustine directed. Faustine lived in New York until her death in March 2025. Sims calls her "a conjurer who helps the past haunt us". Prints from the series are held by several museums, including the Brooklyn Museum.
I came to look at space and left wondering where to put my arms.
Our view
We think the show works best as a question to carry through the galleries. Look at how each artist places a body in a room, then ask who decides how much space it gets.
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Provenance
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