Louise Lawler and Amber Frid-Jimenez:
Other Arrangements
Curated by Emily Butler and Lisa Baldissera
January 30, 2027 - May 16, 2027
Opening Reception: January 29, 2026 | 6-8pm
Louise Lawler and Amber Frid-Jimenez: Other Arrangements brings two artists into cross-generational dialogue on how meaning and value in art are shaped through collecting and display. The exhibition draws on Louise Lawler’s behind-the-scenes views in collector’s homes and museum collections, and Amber Frid-Jimenez’s engagement with cultural archives. Rising to prominence in New York in the 1980s, Lawler is a key figure in the Pictures Generation group, who used photography to examine how mass media shapes our identities. Recognized for her pioneering role in examining the world of art collecting, Lawler has greatly influenced subsequent generations of artists, including Vancouver-based Amber Frid-Jimenez, who further explores the influence of mass media, particularly in this digital age, at the crossroads between art and technology. Drawing from the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Rennie Collection, Other Arrangements provides intimate views into art collectors’ homes, and reveal how the artworld is built and ordered. In their first major exhibition in Vancouver for both artists, Lawler and Frid-Jimenez ask: today, in an age dominated by machine learning, what do the images we collect and circulate say about us?
Image: Louise Lawler, Untitled (Dreams), 1993. Paperweight (silver dye bleach print, crystal, and felt) with text on wall. 5.1 cm (height) × 8.9 cm (diameter) | 2 inches (height) × 3 1/2 inches (diameter). Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers.
Biographies
Amber Frid-Jimenez (Canadian/American/Costa Rican, b. 1974) is an artist who situates her work at the intersection of art, culture and technology through installations, video, printmaking, code, and artist’s books. According to curator Emily Butler, Frid-Jimenez “translates radical moments across twentieth-century art and cultural histories through the lens of contemporary technology.” Recent exhibitions include Underneath every picture there is always another picture (2024), curated by Denise Oleksijczuk at The Cabinet at Simon Fraser University and Something slips, passes, is transmitted, from stage to stage (2023), a solo exhibition curated by T’ai Smith at Mónica Reyes Gallery in Vancouver. Her work has been included in The Imitation Game (2022) and MashUp (2016) at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which has acquired her work for its permanent collection, and in Mel Chin’s All Over the Place (2018) at the Queens Museum, New York, as well as a large-scale video commission for the Washington, DC Metro. She has exhibited at Griffin Art Projects; Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht; Casco Projects, Utrecht; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; A Foundation, Liverpool; Medialab Prado, Madrid; and Ars Electronica, Linz, among other venues. She has collaborated with curators and artists including Ute Meta Bauer, Emily Butler, Joan Jonas and Lucy Orta. Frid-Jimenez is an Associate Professor at Emily Carr University, where she served as Canada Research Chair in art and design technology (2014–2024) and directs the Studio for Extensive Aesthetics. She has taught at MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Bergen Academy of Art and Design. She holds an MSc in media arts and sciences from MIT and a BA (Hons) in painting and philosophy from Wesleyan University.
Louise Lawler (USA, Bronxville, New York b. 1947) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Selected solo exhibitions include Grand Arles Express, Collection Lambert, Avignon (2023), Andy in Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2019–2021), She’s Here, Sammlung Verbund, Vienna (2018), WHY PICTURES NOW, MoMA, New York (2017), Adjusted, Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2013), (Selected). Louise Lawler, Albertinum, Dresden (2012), Twice Untitled and Other Pictures (looking back), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2006), Louise Lawler and Andy Warhol: In and Out of Place, Dia:Beacon, New York (2005), and Louise Lawler and Others, Museum for Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Fondazione Prada, Venice; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; MoMA, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; MUMOK, Vienna; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and the Whitney Museum, New York, which additionally featured the artist in its 1991, 2000, and 2008 biennials. She participated in documenta 12 (2007), documenta 13 (2012), and the 59th Biennale di Venezia (2022). Her work is on view at 12th SITE SANTA FE International until January 12, 2026.
