Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art has landed a huge work with the launch of Zoe Leonard’s Al río / To the River. This marks the first major exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere of the American artist’s highly influential photography.
In a series of 400 large-scale black and white photographs, Leonard’s exhibition shows a snapshot of life on the border between Mexico and the United States of America in an area known as Rio Grande/Río Bravo. Leonard first began documenting in 2016, covering a 2,000km area and photographing the structures and people who lived on the edge of two worlds.
When speaking about the exhibition, curator Suzanne Cotter says Leonard’s work is an extension of her ability to capture beautiful photography that tells a story around commerce, climate change and colonialism.
“Zoe Leonard’s work is widely admired by artists and a broader public around the world for its ambition, its visual and conceptual clarity and its humanity. Al río / To the River is one of the emblematic art works of our time, drawing our attention to the impossibility of binary thinking in a world defined by complexity and in need of empathy,” she said in a press release.
“Following on from lauded presentations in Paris and Luxembourg, the MCA Australia is delighted to be presenting this important new work by Zoe Leonard to audiences in Australia.”
Leonard herself has been in Australia to help with the installation of the exhibition and even sat down for an intimate chat with Cotter to discuss her work.
Al río / To the River will run until November 5, 2023. Tickets are $22 (or $18 for concessions). Be sure to grab yours here.