Martine Syms Grio College

The practice of Martine Syms is distinguished by its boundlessness: her subjects move across media—print and web publishing, photography, moving image, installation, AI, software—dissolving the lines between these forms. One of the most insightful and important artists to show how digital media shapes our culture, Syms examines representations of Blackness and its relationship to vernacular, feminist thought, and radical traditions. Martine Syms: Grio College presents an expansive selection of Syms’ work, featuring major new and recent works and emphasizing the artist’s versatile approach to photography, highlighting the many scales and methods through which she approaches image-making. The exhibition is accompanied by a screening of Syms’ feature film The African Desperate (2022), and premieres related photographic works, drawings, and installation. The script of The African Desperate, co-written by Syms and Rocket Caleshu, will be published by Nightboat Books and available in conjunction with the exhibition.