Barbara Bloom
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Biography
Born 1951 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in New York
Over the course of several decades, Barbara Bloom has developed a distinctive conceptual practice in which objects, images, texts, and spaces form interconnected visual narratives. Drawing on literature, collecting, and the language of museums and display, her multimedia installations invite viewers to discover unexpected relationships between objects and the meanings generated by their juxtaposition.
Bloom will participate in OFFSCREEN at the Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris (20 – 25 October 2026). She has had institutional solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Serpentine Gallery, London; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; The Jewish Museum, New York; ZKM, Karlsruhe; and Kunsthal Aarhus, among others. She has also participated in a wide range of group shows, including the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Kunsthalle Wien; and Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.
Among her numerous honors and appointments are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Getty Research Institute Visiting Scholar appointment, and the Venice Biennale Duemila Prize for Best Young Artist.
Bloom’s work is held in major international collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dutch National Collection, The Hague; International Center of Photography, New York; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Helsinki Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; The Art Institute of Chicago; The New School, New York; ARTER, Istanbul; MAK Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna; and Miami Art Museum.
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Works
Barbara Bloom
Works for the Blind (One day, quite some time ago), 1988Archival digital prints, braille84 x 63.5 x 4 cm
33.1 x 25 x 1.6 inchesEdition 12/15B-BBLOOM-.16-0005Further images
One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been...One day, quite some time ago, I happened on a photograph of Napoleon’s youngest brother, Jerome, taken in 1852. And I realized then, with an amazement I have not been able to. lessen since: “I am looking at eyes that looked at the Emperor.” Sometimes I would mention this amazement, but since no one seemed to share it, nor even to understand it (life consists of these little touches of solitude) I forgot about it.
(Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography)NewsExhibitionsExternal ExhibitionsPressPublicationsRequest more information


