“This summer, ICP presents a solo exhibition of work by internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist, Yto Barrada. Part-Time Abstractionist, a survey of 20 years of Barrada’s work in photography, will explore her investigations into photography and abstraction, beginning in the early 2000s through the present. These two modes of working are consistent throughout Barrada’s work and offer an insight into the ways she examines the social, political, and industrial structures that have and continue to shape society. 

A specific focus on play, childhood, and learning will course throughout the show, including works from found-object photogram series—Bonbon (2016-17), colorful, abstract works made with candy wrappers, Blockhead Toy (2017), printed with a child’s set of blocks, and Practice Piece (2017), contact prints of found sewing lessons—as well as her work with homemade rural North African toys from the collection of the Musée du quai Branly, Paris. In acknowledgement of ICP’s school and active darkroom classes, many of these series use alternative darkroom processes, including the more recent Untitled (burning and dodging tools) (2021), which will also be on view.” — International Center of Photography 

Curator Elisabeth Sherman has remarked, “Barrada has kept a deep commitment to photography and image making throughout her career, while always questioning the boundaries of these categories and their relationship to painting, sculpture, craft and the unexplored origins of a modernist vocabulary. These investigations, coupled with her uncovering of hidden histories and their shaping of our present, make Barrada one of the most important artists of her generation.” 

Images courtesy International Center of Photography (ICP).