Yto Barrada

Upon the show's U.S. debut, Hyperallergic reviews Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden at the Neuberger Museum of Art.

How does one transmit political courage? Yto Barrada asks.

Work by Yto Barrada, an internationally-acclaimed, Moroccan-French, multi-media artist and winner of the 2019 Roy R. Neuberger Prize, will be on view at the Neuberger Museum of Art, in Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden. This is the first time that the exhibition, which originated at the American Academy in Rome, will be seen in the United States. The exhibition includes film, video, photography, sculpture, and hand-dyed textiles that are inspired by the artist’s family history, Islamic tradition, and the legacy of Western colonialism.

Barrada has long investigated gestures and grammar of resistance to structures of power and control. Her interest in resistance is amplified by her explorations of cultural concerns and historical accounts. “It is both personal and political,” notes Helaine Posner, Chief Curator at the Neuberger Museum of Art, “[and] informed by postcolonial thought, subaltern histories, and society’s ‘hidden transcripts,’ which are the secret discourse of the powerless, spoken behind the back of the powerful.”

This presentation of Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden is co-organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art and the American Academy in Rome, and is co-curated by Ms. Posner and Peter Benson Miller, Curator and former Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the Academy. The exhibition is accompanied by a co-published catalogue with contributions by the curators and artist Yto Barrada. Generous support for the Roy R. Neuberger Prize has been provided by Jim Neuberger and Helen Stambler Neuberger.

Yto Barrada: The Dye Garden is on view from September 25 – December 22, 2019 at the Neuberger Museum of Art (735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577). Special award presentation and reception on Saturday, September 21, 6 – 7:30 pm. Non-member preview. Free and open to the public, visit (opens in a new window) here to RSVP.

For more information, visit (opens in a new window) www.purchase.edu/neuberger-museum-of-art.