Alternative Realities at El Museo del Barrio
Miguel Rio Branco, Feather and Dog, 1983. © Miguel Rio Branco. Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio.
Photographic mediums conventionally assert the notion of reality and accuracy to viewers, but the works included in superreal: alternative realities in photography and video, an exhibition of photography and video that opened at El Museo del Barrio this past week, investigate the many layers that surround our traditional sense of the real. superreal presents photo- and video-based works from 1980 to the present that explore the role of photographic mediums in presenting reality. This exploration manifests through the artists’ creations of alternative realities, ones where the worlds of landscapes, human figures, architecture, objects, and natural phenomena are emphasized or subverted, revealed or obscured.
superreal features 150 works by artists such as Adál, Tania Bruguera, Vik Muniz, Miguel Rio Branco, Betsabee Romero, and Andres Serrano. These artists utilize their distinct working methods and viewpoints to challenge preconceived reality and engage with their environments in both surreal and super-real ways that also subvert narrative forms.
