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Yto Barrada, Arbre généalogique [Family Tree], 2005, chromogenic print, 59" x 59" (image and paper), 61" x 61" x 2–1/4" (frame), from an edition of 5 with 2 APs © Yto Barrada

Yto Barrada

Yto Barrada Portrait

Photograph by Benoît Peverelli

Yto Barrada is recognized for her multidisciplinary investigations of cultural phenomena and historical narratives.

Engaging with the performativity of archival practices and public interventions, Barrada’s installations reinterpret social relationships, uncover subaltern histories, and reveal the prevalence of fiction in institutionalized narratives.

Barrada arrived at her artist practice through studies of history and political science, particularly in the negotiation of political and personal experiences. Her first series of photographs, A Life Full of Holes, (1998–2004), used the Strait of Gibraltar as a site of inquiry, examining its status as a border between North Africa and Europe and its impact on the residents of Tangier.

Much of Barrada’s work has since focused on borderlands, microhistories, and autonomous agency within a political landscape. Interested in developing a platform for cross-cultural dialogue and exchange, she founded Cinémathèque de Tanger in 2006. North Africa’s first and only repertory cinema and archive, the Cinémathèque operates out of a restored 1930s theater known as the Cinema Rif, located in one of the city’s main squares. Her most recent project is The Mothership, an eco-feminist research center and residency in Tangier, Morocco, centered around a dye garden that is home to the plants that fuel many of her works. Themes of nature, materiality, and history permeate Barrada's practice, especially in her textiles. The artist sources natural dyes derived from plants, insects, and minerals found in the garden at The Mothership and beyond. Barrada began working with textiles in the early 2000s when she moved to New York. Major solo exhibitions of her work featuring textiles include Yto Barrada: How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself, Pace Gallery (2018); Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden, American Academy in Rome (2018); Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York (2019); Yto Barrada: Bad Color Combinations, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022–23), which traveled to Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2023); and Yto Barrada: Bite the Hand, Pace Gallery, London (2024).

In keeping with her exploration of identity, economics, and notions of authenticity, Barrada’s Faux Guide, presented at Pace London (2015), focused on the fossil and mineral trade as an aspect of cultural production. Using museum collection practices as conceptual strategies, the artist’s multifaceted exhibition reflected on acts of subversion within tourist economies. Her first exhibition with Pace in New York, How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself (2018), included a survey of the artist’s practice and included her installation and film essay, Tree Identification for Beginners, which revisited her mother’s 1966 trip to the United States on a State Department-sponsored travel program.

Informed by postcolonial thought and socio-political concerns, Barrada’s interests range from the tensions around borders, immigration, and tourism to the urban landscape, and from children’s toys to botany and paleontology. Her practice encompasses photography, film, sculpture, painting, printmaking, and publishing, while her installations often comprise both original work and found objects.

Within the interlinked logic of Barrada’s work lie secrets, pleasures, and a celebration of strategies of resistance to domination.

Recent solo exhibitions of Barrada’s work have been held at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams (2021); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2022) which traveled to Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany (2023); P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York (2024–26); International Center of Photography, New York (2024); Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland (2024); and Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy (2025). Barrada will hold a solo exhibition at South London Gallery, Thrill, Fill, Spill, which will open to the public in September and run through January 2026. In 2007 and 2011, Barrada was selected to participate in the Venice Biennale. Barrada has been chosen to represent France at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2026.

The artist has received multiple awards, including the Deutsche Guggenheim Artist of the Year (2011); the Abraaj Group Art Prize, UAE (2015); the Roy R. Neuberger Prize (2019); Mario Merz Prize (2022); Queen Sonja Print Award (2022), and Soros Arts Fellowship (2023). Barrada’s work is held in numerous public collections worldwide, including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; International Center of Photography, New York; Kunsthalle, Basel; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota among others.

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Yto Barrada, Untitled (After Stella, Tangier I), 2018, cotton, madder, 81.3 cm × 96.5 cm (32" × 38") 83 cm × 98.5 cm × 5.3 cm (32-11/16" × 38-3/4" × 2-1/16"), Plexiglas frame © Yto Barrada

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Yto Barrada, The Snail, 2009/2011, C-print, 150 x 150 cm (59-1/16 x 59-1/16"), Edition of 5 + 2 APs © Yto Barrada