Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden

ON VIEW:  September 25-December 22, 2019

This exhibition features recent work by 2019 Roy R. Neuberger Prize recipient Yto Barrada, whose artistic practice weaves together family history and broader sociopolitical narratives, employing a variety of media, including photography, film, video, installation, sculpture, books, and hand-dyed textiles.

The Neuberger Museum’s 2019 Roy R. Neuberger Prize, carrying an honorarium of $25,000, has been awarded to Yto Barrada, an internationally-acclaimed, Moroccan-French multi-media artist. In addition to the cash award, the exhibition, Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden, will be presented for the first time in the United States.

Originally presented at the American Academy in Rome and expanded for the Neuberger Museum of Art, Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden features recent work by Barrada, whose artistic practice weaves together family history and broader sociopolitical narratives, employing a variety of media, including photography, film, video, installation, sculpture, books, and hand-dyed textiles. The artist has long investigated gestures of resistance to structures of power and control. She has an abiding interest in mechanisms of displacement and dislocation, as well as questions of appropriation and authenticity.

Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden is co-organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art and the American Academy in Rome. Co-curated by Chief Curator Helaine Posner and Peter Benson Miller, Curator and former Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy. A fully-illustrated, multi-essay catalogue will accompany the exhibition. Generous support for the Roy R. Neuberger Prize has been provided by Jim Neuberger and Helen Stambler Neuberger.


About the Artist

Yto Barrada, who was born in Paris and raised in Tangier, had her first solo exhibition in 2003 at the Galerie Polaris, Paris. Since then, her work has been featured in exhibitions at the Jeu de Paume, Paris (2006); Venice Biennale (2007, 2011); and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2009), among other venues. In 2011, she received Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year Award. According to Ms. Posner, Barrada’s wide-­ranging intelligence and global perspective inform her work in a variety of media including photography, film, sculpture, and hand-­‐dyed textiles. “She creates aesthetically compelling images and objects and tackles serious sociopolitical and cultural issues leavened with humor.” Barrada now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.



About the Roy R. Neuberger Prize
The Neuberger Museum of Art’s founding patron, Roy R. Neuberger, made it his life’s mission to support the work of living artists.  In that spirit, the prestigious Roy R. Neuberger Prize is awarded biannually to a living artist whose artistic practice contributes not only to how we see and experience art, but also how we consider pressing contemporary global issues. The Prize winner is selected from a slate of international artists, nominated by a cross-disciplinary panel of former Prize winners, Neuberger Museum of Art curators and educators, and Purchase College, SUNY, makers and scholars. The Prize consists of a unique exhibition project and, beginning with our 2019 winner, a cash prize of $25,000. 

Originated and first supported by Roy R. Neuberger, the prize now continues to be generously supported by Jim Neuberger and Helen Stambler Neuberger. Previous recipients of the Prize include Cuban installation and performance artist Tania Bruguera, American figurative painter Dana Schutz, South African video and performance artist Robin Rhode, and Argentine installation artist Leandro Erlich.