The Contemporary Jewish Museum

The Jewish Identity Project:
New American Photography

Extended by popular demand through April 29, 2007

Organized by The Jewish Museum, New York, this exhibition features thirteen emerging and mid-career artists who were commissioned by the Museum to create ten projects focusing on different Jewish communities in the United States. Through the works of these photographers, the exhibition addresses issues relevant to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, as it looks at real and constructed boundaries between people. Using Jewish culture as a lens, The Jewish Identity Project examines the hybrid and complex racial, national and cultural identity of contemporary Americans.

Nikki S. Lee, The Wedding (3) from the Parts series, 2005, C-print mounted on aluminum, 30 x 22.5 in. (76.2 x 57.2 cm). Courtesy of Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects.

 

Organized into three thematic sections, the exhibition considers race, community and home. The first section, "Who is a Jew?," investigates race and how the experiences of being Jewish and Asian, Jewish and Latino, Jewish and Black, or Jewish and interracial can be represented visually. It includes projects by Dawoud Bey, Nikki S. Lee, Shari Rothfarb Mekonen and Avishai Mekonen, and Chris Verene. The second section, "What is Community?," reconsiders the roles played by boundaries, rituals, and cultural and ethnic heritages. Projects by Yoshua Okon, Jaime Permuth, and Tirtza Even and Brian Karl examine the tension between individuals and the various racial or ethnic groups they simultaneously navigate. In the final section, "Where is Home?," Rainer Ganahl, Jessica Shokrian, and Andrea Robbins and Max Becher explore to what extent America becomes "home" to Jews who emigrate to the U.S., and to what degree an individual lives in perpetual exile.

Chris Verene, Prairie Jews, 1997-2005, from the series Galesburg, Sabbath, 2004, Type C Archival print, with artist's handwritten text in oil, 30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.4 cm). Courtesy Chris Verene Studio

To investigate contemporary American Judaism, The Jewish Museum in New York selected artists known for exploring issues of identity. Representing a wide range of lifestyles and ethnicities, the artists' cumulative vision demonstrates that identity is a process of becoming variable, multilayered and socially constructed. The works raise provocative questions about Jews and our multicultural society in general. Who is a Jew? What does it mean to be Jewish? Who gets to decide?

By collaborating with their subjects through a variety of means, the exhibition artists have pushed the limits of traditional documentary and aesthetic approaches to probe the nature of photographic media and its ability to convey a truthful impression. Employing both traditional and experimental approaches, these innovative projects use classic black-and-white photographs, large-scale color photographs, multi-channel video projections, and multimedia installations to depict the complex and often surprising ways Jewish Americans grapple with their identity.

Take a Tour

Free public tours every Sunday and Wednesday at 12:30 pm. Private tours of the exhibition are available for adults, seniors, families, and school groups. Bring your friends, office staff, book club, knitting circle, youth group, photography class, or running buddies for your own specially tailored tour!

All school group visits are free.

All other tours are offered at $50 for up to 15 people, and $80 for 16-25 people. Price includes Museum admission.

This exhibition was organized by The Jewish Museum, New York where it was sponsored, in part, by the Allan Morrow Foundation, Altria Group, Inc., The Henry Nias Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and UJA-Federation of New York.

The exhibition at The Contemporary Jewish Museum is made possible through major support from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund. Additional generous support was provided by Koret Foundation Funds; the Alexander M. and June L. Maisin Foundation of the Jewish Community Federation's Endowment Fund; Altria Group, Inc.; The Guzik Foundation; Fred Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation in memory of Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson; and the Lillian H. Florsheim Foundation for the Arts.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum gratefully acknowledges the generous support of a grant from an anonymous Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, The Simcha Foundation, Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, anonymous donors, and the Members of The Contemporary Jewish Museum. The Museum is a beneficiary of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties.