New Photographs Acquisition Installation Mixes Things Up at Getty

Getty presents Remix: Recent Acquisitions of Photographs, an exhibition featuring eight contemporary artists who share an interest in collecting, arranging, and manipulating objects and images.

Utilizing materials drawn from disparate sources, including popular media and family archives, their acts of layering and remixing present new ways to think about our relationships to both personal and shared histories.

“This installation highlights Getty’s commitment to expanding the scope and diversity of artists and subjects in our photography collection that brings to the forefront traditionally underrepresented stories,” says Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

In their compositions, David O. Alekhuogie, John Edmonds, and Awol Erizku incorporate African cultural objects, drawing attention to their influence on European art of the early 20th century. All three artists critically examine the history of modernism, particularly the ways it appropriated objects from non-Western cultures primarily by removing them from their original contexts.

Engaging with the traditions of collage and montage, Todd Gray, Sky Hopinka, Kyungmi Shin, Lorna Simpson, and Mickalene Thomas utilize physical, in-camera, or digital techniques to cut, tear, or layer images the artist either found or made. The resulting constructions express each artist’s ideas regarding the complexities that are inherent in visual narratives and how these stories shape the ways we understand ourselves today.

“All of the artists included employ unorthodox approaches to thinking about the past, often by focusing on objects or techniques of production that undermine the accepted narratives of Western art history,” says Arpad Kovacs, associate curator in the Department of Photographs and curator of the exhibition.

Remix: Recent Acquisitions of Photographs is on view now through March 3, 2024.