Penelope Umbrico utilizes traditional photographic techniques along with various methods of appropriation and reproduction to explore how images are made and used in contemporary culture. Considering the wealth of images on the internet as a collective archive and portrait of society, Umbrico creates a body of work that navigates between consumer and producer, materiality and immateriality, and individual and collective expression.
Umbrico's work has been included in exhibitions at MoMA PS1, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; MassMoCA, MA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Le Mois de Photo a Montreal Photo Festival, Canada; Lodz Photo Festival, Poland; Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Daegu Photography Biennale, Korea; the Pingyao International Photography Festival, China; Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Germany; Rencontres d’Arles, France; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Australia; Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, NY; International Center of Photography, NY, among many others.
Her work is represented in museum collections including the Guggenheim Museum, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Perez Art Museum Miami, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, Berkeley Museum of Art, CA; and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany.
She is the recipient of a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship; a John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award, a Deutsche Bank Fellow/New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, a Peter S Reed Grant; an Anonymous Was A Woman Award; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship; and an Aaron Siskind Individual Photographer’s Fellowship.
Her monographs include: Penelope Umbrico (photographs), Aperture (Spring 2011); Range, Aperture (Fall 2014); Out of Order, RVB Books Paris (Fall 2014)
Penelope Umbrico
Everyone's Moons Any License, 2019
Archival pigment print
48 x 48 inches
Penelope Umbrico
541,795 Suns (From Sunsets) from Flickr (Partial), 01/23/06, 2006-ongoing
4x6 inch Chromogenic prints, variable allover
Penelope Umbrico
Suns (From Sunsets) from Flickr, 2006-ongoing (installation view)
48 x 96 inches
Penelope Umbrico
Mirrors (from catalogs), 2002-2007
8 x 8 in.
Penelope Umbrico
17 Mirrors (From Home-improvement Websites / Plants, Flowers and Beds), 2001-2011
Unique installation, digital chromogenic prints face mounted to non-glare plexiglass
Approximately 95 x 98 in. (241 x 249 cm)
Penelope Umbrico
Screenshot 2015-11-07 18.34.11 / Pink Filter, 2015
Archival pigment print
40x40 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Screenshot 2015-11-24 18.14.32 / Blue Filter, 2015
Archival pigment print
40x40 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Screenshot 2015-11-04 18.44.53 / Grey Filter, 2015
Archival pigment print
40 x 40 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Screenshot 2015-11-07 18.34.11 / Pink Filter, 2015
Screenshot 2015-11-24 18.14.32 / Blue Filter, 2015
(installation view)
Penelope Umbrico
(Not) Easy Canvases, from Four photographs of Rays of Sunlight in Grand Central Station, Grand Central Terminal, 1903-1913, 1920, 1926, 1928, 1929, 1934, 1937, 1940, 1930-1940, 1935-1941, 1947, or 2010, by John Collier, Philip Gendreau Herbert, Edward Hulton, Kurt Hulton, Edward Lunch, Maxi, Hal Morey, Henry Silberman, Warren and Wetmore Trowbridge, Underwood & Underwood, Unknown, or Anonymous (Courtesy: Associated Press, the author, Bettmann/Corbis, Hal Morey / Getty Images, Getty Images, Hulton Collection, Hulton-Getty, Hutton Collection, New York City Municipal Archives, New York Transit Museum, New York City Parks and Landmarks, Royal Geographical Society, SuperStock/Corbis, Underwood & Underwood, Warren and Wetmore, or Image in Public Domain), 2015
Penelope Umbrico
Sunset Portraits from 33,720,197 Sunset Pictures on Flickr on 08/07/17, 2017
Chromogenic prints, each 4 x 6 inches
48 x 48 inches overall
Penelope Umbrico
For Sale / Televisions from Craiglist, 2008-2011
Digital c-prints mounted to aluminum
Thirty-five unique elements; 11" x 17" each
Penelope Umbrico
Moving Mountains (1850-2012): of Aperture Masters of Photography 87 digital c-prints, each 4” x 4”, 6” x 8”, 8” x 8”, 8” x 10”, 8” x 12”, overall dimension 55” x 118”
Penelope Umbrico
Screenshot 2017-10-12 15.34.53 / Purple Filter, 2017
Archival pigment print
Penelope Umbrico
Master-DWL013 from Mirrors (From Home0Improvement Websites), 2011
Digital chromogenic print face mounted to non-glare Plexiglass
Penelope Umbrico
Mirror #129W from Mirrors (From Home-Improvement Websites), 2011
Digital chromogenic print face mounted to non-glare Plexiglass
Penelope Umbrico
21,887,750 Suns from Sunset from Flickr (Partial) 06/27/2014, 2014
96 digital c-prints, each 4 x 6 inches, mounted together
48 x 48 in.
Penelope Umbrico
18,297,350 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr 04/16/14, 2014
192 digital c-prints, each 4 x 6 inches, mounted together
48 x 96 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Sunset Portraits, 2017
96 digital c-prints, each 5x7 inches, mounted together
Overall 48 x 48 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Suns from Sunsets from Flickr, 2006 (installation view)
Ongoing - 192 digital c-prints, each 4 x 6 inches, mounted together 48 x 96 in.
Penelope Umbrico
Sunset Portraits, 2017 (installation view)
96 digital c-prints, each 5x7 inches, mounted together
Overall 48 x 48 in.
