Josh Kolbo
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
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.
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
Josh Kolbo
Solo and duo exhibitions
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2016
CONDO Project, with Jeanette Mundt, Project Native Informant, London
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2015
A Simulated Future amid Collapse, Société, Berlin
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2014
God, with Jeanette Mundt, Primetime Space, New York
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2013
Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin
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2012
Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin
Josh Kolbo & Ned Vena, with Ned Vena, Société, Berlin
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2011
Josh Kolbo, Société, Berlin
Josh Kolbo, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago
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2010
Josh Kolbo, Max Hans Daniel, Berlin
Josh Kolbo, Max Hans Daniel, London
Group exhibitions
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2017
pic.london, London
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2015
DIDING, An Interior That Remains an Exterior?, Künstlerhaus KM, Graz
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2014
Fixed Variable, Hauser & Wirth, New York
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2013
Lens Drawings, Curated by Jens Hoffmann, Galerie Marian Goodman, Paris
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2012
Josh Kolbo, The Mews Project Space, London
Schach Matt, Märkischen Museum Witten, Witten
Monochrome, Salts, Basel
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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
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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
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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
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2008
Friends + Family, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Episode 5, Untitled TV Show BCAT, New York
Episode 7, Untitled TV Show BCAT, New York