SOCIÉTÉ

Josh Kolbo

Installation view, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, Société, Berlin, 2013


Josh Kolbo’s practice foregrounds the physicality of images. He collapses the distinction between photography and sculpture by troubling the boundaries between image and object, flatness and three-dimensionality, and representation and reality. His photo-sculptural installations extend the conventions of photography to fully inhabit three-dimensional space through rolling, layering, and draping photographs into unexpected configurations that build narratives across separate, yet related works. Kolbo’s more recent works address what the artist calls “the simulated image”—a displacement of photography, which applies an image as a texture to a concept. Our ability to simulate reality has come to match our ability to record it. Kolbo’s layered practice explores how this historical development introduces new forms of entanglement between the image and the social, political, and economic forces that it emerges within.

Josh Kolbo (b. 1984, Philadelphia) is a sculptor and photographer who lives and works in Brooklyn. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions including CONDO Project / Hosted by Project Native Informant, London; Société, Berlin; GOD / Primetime Space, New York. And in group exhibitions at pic.london, London; Künstlerhaus KM, Graz; The Mews Project Space, London; Märkischen Museum Witten, Witten; Salts, Basel; and Five Thirty Three, Los Angeles.


A Simulated Future amid Collapse

Société, Berlin 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Photographic retouching begins with a problem: a photograph has imperfections, technical flaws, objects or details we’d rather it not represent. Like editing a piece of writing, the post-production of a photograph is a process of subtraction, reduction, or overwriting.

Tess Edmonson
Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Josh Kolbo - Société Berlin
Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

Installation view, A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin, 2015

 

JOSH KOLBO

Société, Berlin 2011

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Installation view, JOSH KOLBO, Société, Berlin, 2013

Josh Kolbo

Solo and duo exhibitions

  • 2016

    CONDO Project, with Jeanette Mundt, Project Native Informant, London

  • 2015

    A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin

  • 2014

    God, with Jeanette Mundt, Primetime Space, New York

  • 2013

    Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin

  • 2012

    Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin

    Josh Kolbo & Ned Vena, with Ned Vena, Société, Berlin

  • 2011

    Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin

    Josh Kolbo, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago

  • 2010

    Josh Kolbo, Max Hans Daniel, Berlin

    Josh Kolbo, Max Hans Daniel, London

Group exhibitions

  • 2017

    pic.london, London

  • 2015

    DIDING, An Interior That Remains an Exterior?, Künstlerhaus KM, Graz

  • 2014

    Fixed Variable, Hauser & Wirth, New York

  • 2013

    Lens Drawings, Curated by Jens Hoffmann, Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris

  • 2012

    Josh Kolbo, The Mews Project Space, London

    Schach Matt, Märkischen Museum Witten, Witten

    Monochrome, Salts, Basel

  • 2011

    Groupshow, ICI, New York

    NY: New Perspectives, Brand New Gallery, Milan

    RE: Empire, Team Gallery, New York

    Belief and Understanding, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York

    Untiteld Document, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago

  • 2010

    Tide Pool, Sara Meltzer Gallery, New York

    Projection, Curated by Cleopatra’s at Canada, New York

    All the Splendors of the Earth II, In collaboration with Ned Vena, Cave Gallery, Detroit

    Big Apple, Apartment Show at Clifton Benevento, New York

    Reel Worlds: A James Cameron Retrospective, PS.1, New York

    Guilty Feet, Curated by Tova Carlin and Colby Bird, 179 Canal, New York

    Projection, Curated by Cleopatra’s, Cave Gallery, Detroit

  • 2009

    Free Spirits, Apartment Show, New York

    If the Dogs are Barking, Artists Space, New York

    Apartment Show: HUGS N‘ KNISHES, NADA County Fair, New York

    All the Splendors of the Earth, Center Galleries, Detroit

    Mayflower, 310 Broadway, New York

    Materialism, Real Fine Arts, New York

    Apartment Show, Envoy Gallery, New York

    Purple #’s, Organized by Arnd Seibert, Five Thirty Three, Los Angeles

    Junk Shop, NADA County Fair, New York

    Happy House, Apartment Show at Printed Matter, New York

    Gruppenausstellung, Organized by Max Hans Daniel, Autocenter, Berlin

    Projection, Curated by Cleopatra’s, Autocenter, Berlin

    Projection, Curated by Cleopatra’s, ICI New York, NADA Miami

  • 2008

    Friends + Family, Anton Kern Gallery, New York

    Episode 5, Untitled TV Show BCAT, New York

    Episode 7, Untitled TV Show BCAT, New York

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