Penelope Umbrico (born January 31, 1957) is an American artist best known for her work that appropriates images found using search engines and picture sharing websites.

Penelope Umbrico
Born (1957-01-31) January 31, 1957 (age 67)
Alma materOntario College of Art,
School of Visual Arts
MovementAppropriation art

Education and career

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Suns from Flickr installation by Umbrico at New York Photo Festival, New York, 2008

Umbrico was born in Philadelphia in 1957.[1] She graduated from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada in 1980. She obtained her M.F.A. in 1989 at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Exhibitions

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In 2010 her exhibition, As Is, at LMAK Projects featured a series of work called Broken Sets (EBay) (2009–2010), which consisted of images of broken LCD television screens that were acquired from pictures posted by eBay sellers trying to sell damaged television sets for parts.[2]

Her project Suns from Flickr started in 2006 when she found 541,795 pictures of sunsets searching the word "sunset" on the photo-sharing web site Flickr while looking for the most photographed subject (which the sunset turned out to be). She took just the suns from these pictures and made Kodak snapshot prints of them.

For each installation, the title reflects the number of hits she gets searching "sunset" on Flickr at the time – for example, the first installation was "541,795 Suns From Flickr" in 2006; subsequent installations were: "2303057 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 9/25/07" (2007); "3,221,717 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 3/31/08" (2008); "5,911,253 Suns From Flickr (Partial) 8/03/09" (2009) – the title itself becoming a comment on the ever-increasing use of web-based photo communities and a reflection of the collective content there.

Her work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, on the cover and inside spreads accompanying "Ghosts in the Machine".[3] In March 2012, Art in America featured Umbrico's work on the cover[4] and inside along with a short essay by the artist.

She has served as a member of faculty at Bard College's Summer MFA (Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts) (Chair of MFA Photography from 2004 to 2010), and she is a core faculty member at the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography Video and Related Media in NYC.[5]

Publications

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  • Variants, 1991
  • From Catalogs, 1998
  • Out of Place, 2002
  • Honeymoon Suites, 2002
  • Many Leonards Not Natman, 2010
  • Desk Trajectories (As Is), 2010
  • Signals Still / Ink (Book) / Out of Order, from the series Signal to Ink, 2011
  • Penelope Umbrico: Photographs, Apeture, 2011
  • Moving Mountains (1850–2012), Conveyor, 2012
  • RANGE, Aperture, 2014
  • Out of Order: Used Office Desks and Used Office Plants for Sale, RVB, 2014
  • Out of Order: Bad Display, RVB and Photoforum Pasquart, 2016
  • Solar Eclipses From the New York Public Library Picture Collection, RVB, 2016

Awards, grants and residencies

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Exhibitions

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Solo exhibitions

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Group exhibitions

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Unclassified exhibitions

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  • 2009: For A Brief Time Only at a Location Near You[88]
  • 2011: Exhibition at Rencontres d'Arles festival, Arles, France.
  • 2011: Laureate from Rencontres d'Arles Discovery Award.

Collections

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Umbrico's work is held in the following public collections:

References

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  1. ^ "Penelope Umbrico - Guest Lecture | Dartmouth Studio Art Department". studioart.dartmouth.edu. April 30, 2019.
  2. ^ Milder, Patricia (June 3, 2010). "Penelope Umbrico: As Is". The Brooklyn Rail (June 2010).
  3. ^ Walker, Rob (January 5, 2011). "Cyberspace When You're Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  4. ^ Art in America, Archives March 2012
  5. ^ "Penelope Umbrico - SVA". School of Visual Arts | SVA | New York City. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  6. ^ "2017–2018 Recipients of Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program Announced". Art F City. June 7, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  7. ^ "Pilchuck Glass School : 2015 Artist in Residence, Penelope Umbrico". pilchuck.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  8. ^ "John Gutmann Photography Fellowship News". johngutmann.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  9. ^ "2018 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) | Smithsonian Fellowships and Internships". www.smithsonianofi.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  10. ^ "John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation". 2011.
  11. ^ "Peter S. Reed 2011". petersreedfoundation.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  12. ^ "OCAD – Headline: Penelope Umbrico wins New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Photography". ocadu.ca. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  13. ^ "Past Award Winners". Supporting Women Artists Over 40. Archived from the original on November 3, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  14. ^ "Aaron Siskin Foundation". February 21, 2018.
  15. ^ "Artdoc Magazine - Unexpectedly, Festival Images Vevey 2020 is on! - Festival Images Vevey 2020". www.artdoc.photo. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  16. ^ "Everyone's Photos Any License (532 of 1,190,505 Full Moons on Flickr, 2015) | George Eastman Museum". www.eastman.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  17. ^ "La série Views from the internet de Penelope Umbrico à la Nuit de la photo 2012". Nuit de la photo – La Chaux-de-Fonds (in French). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  18. ^ "Exhibits | Collections – Exhibits – Penelope Umbrico: Screen Light – Peoria Riverfront Museum". www.peoriariverfrontmuseum.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. ^ "Penelope Umbrico featured at PHOTO LA 2017". Mark Moore Fine Art Blog. January 10, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  20. ^ "What to see at Paris Photo 2016 – British Journal of Photography". bjp-online.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  21. ^ Museum, Milwaukee Art. "Milwaukee Art Museum | Exhibitions". mam.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  22. ^ "PENELOPE UMBRICO @ BIEL/BIENNE FESTIVAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY". Photoforum. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  23. ^ exhibit-e.com. "Penelope Umbrico: Silvery Light – Exhibitions – Bruce Silverstein". brucesilverstein.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  24. ^ "MTA – Arts & Design | Lightbox Project". web.mta.info. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  25. ^ "Article". The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  26. ^ "Penelope Umbrico: A Proposal and Two Trades, to start". Circulation | Exchange: Moving Images in Contemporary Art. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  27. ^ "New York City Percent for Art – In celebration of National Teacher Appreciation". New York City Percent for Art. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  28. ^ "Penelope Umbrico: Mountains, Moving: of George C. Poundston 1926–2013". February 21, 2018.
  29. ^ Lavalette. "A Conversation with Penelope Umbrico". Lavalette. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  30. ^ "Paraty em Foco: Penélope Umbrico – Portal Photos". Portal Photos (in Brazilian Portuguese). September 2, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  31. ^ "Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival". scotiabankcontactphoto.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  32. ^ "Penelope Umbrico: Leonards for..., Brooklyn Academy of Music, 01/2010". mutualart.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  33. ^ "PENELOPE UMBRICO @ BERNARD TOALE GALLERY". Big Red & Shiny. February 16, 2004. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  34. ^ "92". International Center of Photography. January 31, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  35. ^ "Gathering Clouds: Photographs from the Nineteenth Century and Today | George Eastman Museum". www.eastman.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  36. ^ "NEW FOR OLD | Metro Arts Brisbane". January 21, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  37. ^ "Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today | University of Michigan Museum of Art". umma.umich.edu. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  38. ^ "For Ever More Images? Designing a cybermachine for the 21st century". www.onassis.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  39. ^ "Apollo's Muse: The Moon in the Age of Photography". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  40. ^ "Postmasters 35 years". www.postmastersart.com. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  41. ^ "From Ansel Adams to Infinity". Chrysler Museum of Art. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  42. ^ "171 Clouds from the V&A Online Collection, 1630-1885 – a new commission by Penelope Umbrico • V&A Blog". V&A Blog. October 10, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  43. ^ "ICA Opens First Major U.S. Exhibition to Examine the Impact of the Internet on Visual Art | icaboston.org". www.icaboston.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  44. ^ "New Territory: Landscape Photography Today". Denver Art Museum.
  45. ^ "Penelope Umbrico". Jimei x Arles International Photography Festival. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  46. ^ "ARTIST – Guangzhou Image Triennial 2017". guangzhouimagetriennial.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  47. ^ "Screens: Virtual Material | deCordova". decordova.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  48. ^ "Galerie Andreas Schmidt | "Perfect/Imperfect"". PiB – Photography in Berlin. October 10, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  49. ^ "Eventos – Goethe-Institut Spanien". goethe.de (in Spanish). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  50. ^ "PhotoEspaña 2017: ¿Cómo meter 30 millones de fotos en una sala de exposiciones de Alcalá?". Noticias de Alcalá de Henares e información multimedia 24 horas al día (in European Spanish). June 23, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  51. ^ "제10회 전주 국제사진제, is Location/Dislocation". m.post.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  52. ^ "Love the Screen You're With | Unframed". unframed.lacma.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  53. ^ "Carnegie Magazine | Winter 2016 | Strength in Numbers – By Christine H. OToole". carnegiemuseums.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  54. ^ "Penelope Umbrico: An Inventory of Her Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  55. ^ Penelope Umbrico. "When we share more than ever". mkg-hamburg.de. Archived from the original on January 1, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  56. ^ "think of number 6, bark like a dog". ArtThrob. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  57. ^ "BOOKS BEYOND ARTISTS: NEW INCUNABULA". February 21, 2018.
  58. ^ "Digital // Analog: Indifferenz – Archiv – Motorenhalle – Kunst erleben – riesa efau". riesa-efau.de (in German). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  59. ^ "Flatlander-Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art – Projects – Mark Moore Fine Art". markmoorefineart.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  60. ^ "FOMO : sextantetplus.org". sextantetplus.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  61. ^ admini, BRIC (August 5, 2014). "BRIC Biennial: Volume I, Downtown Edition". BRIC. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  62. ^ "A World of Its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  63. ^ "California Landscape into Abstraction" (PDF). February 21, 2018.
  64. ^ "OFFLINE ART: Hardcore at Aram Bartholl". arambartholl.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  65. ^ "Penelope Umbrico – Penelope Umbrico – Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal". moisdelaphoto.com (in French). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  66. ^ "Arts Santa Mònica analitza el fenomen de la postfotografia amb l'exposició 'From here on. D'ara endavant' – Sala de premsa. Generalitat de Catalunya". premsa.gencat.cat (in Catalan). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  67. ^ "Obra-colección. El artista como coleccionista". Foto Colectania. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  68. ^ "Aesthetica Magazine – Landmark: the Fields of Photography, London". Aesthetica. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  69. ^ "Aperture Remix". Aperture Foundation NY. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  70. ^ "Collect the WWWorld: The Artist as Archivist in the Internet Age | 319 Scholes". 319scholes.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  71. ^ "Special Exhibition I- Repositioned Personal | – Daegu Photo Biennale". daeguphoto.com (in Korean). Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  72. ^ "Born in 1987: The Animated Gif at The Photographers' Gallery London". artmap.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  73. ^ "Artist Videos | Pace/MacGill Gallery". www.pacemacgill.com. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  74. ^ "UMBRICO, Penelope". Médiathèque des Rencontres d'Arles. August 3, 2011. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  75. ^ "Memery: Imitation, Memory, and Internet Culture". massmoca.org. July 9, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  76. ^ "SFMOMA CELEBRATES 75 YEARS OF LOOKING FORWARD WITH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION". SFMOMA. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  77. ^ "MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Between Spaces". momaps1.org. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  78. ^ "The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography". Aperture Foundation NY. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  79. ^ Fair, Vanity. "New York Photo Festival Hits Brooklyn". The Hive. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  80. ^ "The Leisure Class | Scanlines". scanlines.net. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  81. ^ "FEED @ MASSART". Big Red & Shiny. November 8, 2004. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  82. ^ "Object and Abstraction: Contemporary Photographs | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  83. ^ "Eye of the Beholder: Photographs from the Avon Collection". International Center of Photography. February 23, 2016. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  84. ^ "ART IN THE ANCHORAGE". creativetime.org. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  85. ^ "More than One Photography: Works since 1980 from the Collection | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  86. ^ "Art in General". artingeneral.org. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
  87. ^ "Julie Saul Gallery // Umbrico 93" (PDF).
  88. ^ For a Brief Time Only at a Location Near You, exhibition notes
  89. ^ "Art Collection | CollectionSpace". webapps.cspace.berkeley.edu. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
  90. ^ "Penelope Umbrico". International Center of Photography. January 31, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  91. ^ "Penelope Umbrico | Everyone's Moon 4 November 2015 14:22:59 | The Met". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  92. ^ "Museum of Contemporary Photography". mocp.org. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  93. ^ "Penelope Umbrico". SFMOMA. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  94. ^ "CMOA Collection". collection.cmoa.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  95. ^ "Everyone's Photos Any License (532 of 1,190,505 Full Moons on Flickr, 2015) | George Eastman Museum". www.eastman.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  96. ^ Umbrico, Penelope. "Penelope Umbrico: An Inventory of Her Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  97. ^ "TVs From Craigslist | LACMA Collections". collections.lacma.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  98. ^ "All the Embarrassing Books". McNay Art Museum Online Collection. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  99. ^ "30,240,577 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (Partial) 03/04/16 | Milwaukee Art Museum". collection.mam.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  100. ^ "136 Mini Film Cameras in the Smithsonian Institution History of Photography Collection With Old Style Photoshop Filter, Penelope Umbrico; Photographer: Penelope Umbrico ^ Minneapolis Institute of Art". collections.artsmia.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  101. ^ "Foto Company Altona, Penelope Umbrico | Signals Still | Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg". sammlungonline.mkg-hamburg.de. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  102. ^ "Museum of Contemporary Photography". www.mocp.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  103. ^ "Penelope Umbrico Mirror (from Home Décor Catalogs and Websites)".
  104. ^ "Penelope Umbrico. Variants. 1989 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  105. ^ "PAMM is open for Miami Art Week". www.pamm.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  106. ^ "18_IMG_6697-a, from the series Moving Mountains". www.portlandartmuseum.us. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  107. ^ "Details from Sunset Portraits (from 9,539,955 Flickr Sunset Pictures 8/8/11) | RISD Museum". risdmuseum.org. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  108. ^ "All Artists: Digital & Media Art". Thoma Foundation. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  109. ^ Victoria and Albert Museum. "171 Clouds from the V&A Online Collection, 1630 – 1885 | Penelope Umbrico | V&A Explore The Collections". Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  110. ^ "The Legacy of Pioneering Victorian Photographer Anna Atkins Celebrated in Dual Exhibitions at The New York Public Library". The New York Public Library. Retrieved April 16, 2021.