EM JOSEPH
I am a Lebanese-American artist, filmmaker, and educator based in Lenapehoking whose work uses various documentary forms to explore overlapping stories of war, diaspora, and indigenous sovereignty. My work (re)contextualizes multifaceted attachments between societies and ecosystems. I have had solo exhibitions at The New Museum (2023-24) and Ortega Y Gasset Projects (2016), am a Y11 New Inc. Creative Science Track member, and was a recipient of the Fine Arts Grant from The Arab Foundation for Arts & Culture in 2020 as part of my collaborative project EcoRove. I received an MFA from Columbia University (2016), and a BA from Vassar College (2011). I am is part-time faculty at The New School, and was previously adjunct assistant professor of photography at Columbia University.
Born, 1989, Manahatta, Lenapehoking (New York, NY)
Lives & works in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY).
EDUCATION
2016 MFA Columbia University, New York, New York.
2011 BA, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Screen Series: EcoRove (Jumanah Abbas, Iyad Abou Gaida, Em Joseph), The New Museum, New York, October 12 - January 7, 2024.
2016
Don't Shower When It Rains, The Skirt @ Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, September 10-December 4.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Circadian Gardens, eyes never sleep, New York, March 12 - May 26.
Container Shift, The New York Studio School DUMBO Project Space, Brooklyn, February 16 - March 19.
2022
A Light In The Attic, 307 Clinton, Brooklyn, March 25-27.
2019
Landscape as Dreamscape, citygroup, New York, October 11 - December 17.
2018
Optimism: 2K18 Endless Biennial, EFA Project Space, New York, December 7-21.
Housewarming: domesti.city, 97 East Broadway, New York, April 20 - June 24.
Re:Framed, Pfizer Building, Brooklyn, January 20 - 11.
XOXO Material Girls, Museum of Human Achievement, Austin, TX, January 19-21.
2017
HELLO GIRLS!, No Vacancy 3, Alt Esc Platform, Brooklyn, November 10-12.
In Response: The Arcades, The Jewish Museum, New York, May 7.
2016
Monopoles, Ugly Duck, London, UK, October 28-30.
Finished Goods Warehouse, 630 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn, August 6-27.
Lattice Work, Black & White Gallery Project Space, Brooklyn, August 5-14.
2016 Columbia MFA Thesis Exhibition, Fisher Landau Center for Art, Long Island City, Queens, April 25 - May 16.
Lines of Flight, The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, April 21 - June 4.
atmospheres, Roof Books, New York, April 19.
Revisiting The Art of Inequality, The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University, New York, January 28 - June 1.
2015
The Art of Inequality: Architecture, Housing & Real Estate, Avery Hall, Columbia University, New York, October 26 - December 31.
Floating Point: Work from 49 Columbia MFAs, Judith Charles Gallery, New York, June 25 - July 3, 2015.
First Year MFA Exhibition 2015, The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, March 27 – April 14, 2015.
MISS: salon – Emerging Formats 2010-2015, MISS Magazine, New York, March 13 - 20, 2015.
2014
The White Castle Presents - Volume II: New York, Lately, Brooklyn, May 10, 2014.
Something Blue, Artspace, New Haven, CT, April 26, 2014.
2013
The White Castle Presents: Volume I, Brooklyn, NY, August 24, 2013.
Bushwick Open Studios, 226 Troutman Street, Brooklyn, NY, May 31 – June.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024
“CEDAR EXODUS: ECOROVE RECLAIMS THE NARRATIVE OF THE CEDAR TREE”, Al Rawiya, ‘Pre-Occupied Thoughts’, 2024.
2017
Lombino, Mary-Kay, ed. Other People’s Pictures: Snapshots from the Peter J. Cohen Gift. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College: 2017.
2016
Lachow, Claire, ‘Pfamily Ties’, Foundations, September 15.
Gopnik, Blake, ‘A Columbia MFA Contemplates Empty Factories – And Her Own Future?’, ArtNet News, August 8.
Martin, Reinhold; Jacob Moore, Susanne Schindler; 'Defining Inequality', ARQ93, August 2016.
2015
Martin, Reinhold; Jacob Moore, Susanne Schindler, eds. The Art of Inequality: Architecture, Housing & Real Estate - A Provisional Report. The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University, ORO grafisch projectmanagement: 2015.
GRANTS & AWARDS
2020 - 2023
Arab Foundation for Arts & Culture Fine Arts Grant.
RESIDENCIES
2024-2025
New Inc. Creative Science Track Participant, New York, NY.
2019
CATWALK Art Residency at the CATWALK Institute, Catskill, NY, February 12 – 24.
TEACHING
2021 - Current
Part-Time Faculty, Sustainable Systems, School of Design, Parsons: The New School, New York, NY.
2019 - 2020
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Photography, School of Visual Arts, School of the Arts, Columbia University, New York, NY.