Future Perfect, Career Survey at Milwaukee Art Museum
28,534,323 Suns from Sunset from Flickr (Partial) 8/3/05, 2015 / C-print / 160” high x 354” wide (a total of 2360 unique 4” x 6” prints)
COLLECTION OF THE PEREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI
Bad Display, 2015 dimensions variable / Aldrich Museum Installation / Image courtesy of Chad Kleitsch
New York Public Library Picture Collection Photo-Copies: Eclipses (with Graphite), 2015 / photocopy with graphite / SET OF 50 UNIQUE IMAGES (60 X 96 INCHES OVERALL) /Aldrich Museum Installation / Image courtesy of Chad Kleitsch
From "Mountains, Moving: Light Leaks, and Chemical Burns," 2014 / digital c-print / 33 x 40 inches
Mirrors (from Home Décor Catalogs and Websites), 2011 / c print / dimensions variable
Collection of Museum of Fine Art, Houston (TX)
5,377,183 Suns from Flickr (Partial) 4/28/09, 2009 / 1440 digital files and 1440 4 x 6 inches machine c-prints
Permanent Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Sunset Portraits from 11,063,296 Flickr Sunsets on July 17, 2012, 2012, detail of installation for Daegu Biennial, Korea
2,303,057 Suns from Sunsets from Flickr (Partial) 09/25/07 , 2007, detail of 2300 4x6 machine c-prints, installation at Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia
"136 Mini Film Cameras in the Smithsonian Institution History of Photography Collection..." / archival pigment prints on Hahnmuhle Photo Rag paper / 36 x 84 inches / edition of 3 (+2 APs) / Permanent Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts
TVs from Craigslist, 2008-2011,
digital c-prints on metallic Kodak paper mounted on aluminum
Unique grouping of 35 prints; 11" x 17" each / Dimensions Variable
Collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Broken Sets (eBay) Series, 2009 - 2010 / c-prints / 30 x 40 inches
Permenant Collection of the Guggenheim Museum, NY
"Viral Fields/Seasonal (Catalog Jewelry Arrangements)", 1998-00
each 16"x20", c-prints
Collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
8,146,774 Suns from Flickr (Partial) 10/15/10, 2010 / 4 x 6 inches machine c-prints / 48 x 96 inches framed / Permanent Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Embarrassing Books, 2011 / c-prints / dimensions variable
Collection of The McNay Museum of Art (San Antonio TX)
Mountains, Moving: Of Dr. Georoge C. Poundstone 1926-2013, 2013 / 37 archival pigment prints on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper / 34 x 85 inches
Collection of The Norton Art Museum (Palm Beach, FL)
Broken Sets (eBay), 2009 - 2011 / c-prints on metallic paper / each 20" x 30"
Installation Rencontres d'Arles (FR)
“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” 2013 / c-prints, variable dimensions, detail of installation at MTA Museum, NYC
20 Broken Sets (eBay), 2014 / Digital c-print on Fuji metallic paper / Edition of 5 /
80 x 150 inches total, 20 x 30 inches each panel
Broken Sets (eBay), 2009, each 30” x 40”, installation PS1, MoMA, NYC:
Signals Still, 2011 / c-prints / dimensions variable
Universal Remotes (eBay), 2008-ongoing / c-prints / dimensions variable
Penelope Umbrico offers a radical reinterpretation of everyday consumer and vernacular images. Umbrico works “within the virtual world of consumer marketing and social media, traveling through the relentless flow of seductive images, objects, and information that surrounds us, searching for decisive moments—but in these worlds, decisive moments are cultural absurdities.”
Umbrico finds these moments in the pages of consumer product mail-order catalogs, travel and leisure brochures; and websites like Craigslist, EBay, and Flickr. Identifying image typologies—candy-colored horizons and sunsets, books used as props—brings the farcical, surreal nature of consumerism to new light.
Penelope Umbrico (born in Philadelphia, 1957) graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, and received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. She has participated extensively in solo and group exhibitions, including at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York. Umbrico is core faculty in the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Program. Selected public collections include the Guggenheim Museum (NY), International Center of Photography (NY), McNay Museum of Art (TX), Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Museum of Contemporary Photography (IL), Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (CA), Museum of Modern Art (NY), and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA), among others. She lives in New York City.
