Stephanie Syjuco

Bio

Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Oakland, California) is known for her investigative, research-based practice encompassing photography, sculpture, and installation. Progressing from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations, her work employs open- source systems, shareware logic, and capital flows to scrutinize issues related to economies and empire. Initially exploring image-based processes and their implications in constructing racialized, exclusionary narratives of American history and citizenship, she has shifted her focus to the history- building and myth-making undertaken by Filipinos in their newfound independence. From critiquing images of American colonial anthropology in the Philippines, to investigating historical museum collections and shuttered newspaper archives, her projects attempt to reframe and “talk back” to the archive.

Syjuco received her MFA from Stanford University and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, a 2020 Tiffany Foundation Award, and a 2009 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Award. She was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC in 2019-20 and is featured in the acclaimed PBS documentary series Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Getty Museum, The Walker Art Center, and The 2015 Asian Art Biennial (Taiwan), among others. A long-time educator, she is an Associate Professor in Sculpture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Photo of the artist by Kija Lucas

Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Oakland, California) is known for her investigative, research-based practice encompassing photography, sculpture, and installation. Progressing from handmade and craft-inspired mediums to digital editing and archive excavations, her work employs open- source systems, shareware logic, and capital flows to scrutinize issues related to economies and empire. Initially exploring image-based processes and their implications in constructing racialized, exclusionary narratives of American history and citizenship, she has shifted her focus to the history- building and myth-making undertaken by Filipinos in their newfound independence. From critiquing images of American colonial anthropology in the Philippines, to investigating historical museum collections and shuttered newspaper archives, her projects attempt to reframe and “talk back” to the archive.

Syjuco received her MFA from Stanford University and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship Award, a 2020 Tiffany Foundation Award, and a 2009 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Award. She was a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Museum of American History in Washington DC in 2019-20 and is featured in the acclaimed PBS documentary series Art21: Art in the Twenty-First Century. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Getty Museum, The Walker Art Center, and The 2015 Asian Art Biennial (Taiwan), among others. A long-time educator, she is an Associate Professor in Sculpture at the University of California, Berkeley.

Photo of the artist by Kija Lucas

Block Out the Sun
2019
11065
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Photographic intervention in the archives of the Missouri Historical Society, Mercantile Society, and the Missouri Public Library Archival pigment prints mounted on aluminum, wooden risers, display case
8 x 10 in • 20.32 x 25.4 cm (each, of 30) 96 x 48 x 36 in • 243.84 x 121.92 x 91.44 cm (overall)
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Chromakey Aftermath 1 (Flags, Sticks, and Barriers)
2017
11062
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archival pigment inkjet
24h x 36w in • 60.96h x 91.44w cm
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Edition of 8
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Afterimages (Interference of Vision)
2021
11063
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Suite of five photogravure printed on gampi mounted on Somerset black 280 gram cotton rag
Image: 16h x 20w in / 40.64h x 50.80w cm • Sheet: 18h x 24w in / 45.72h x 60.96w cm
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Crumpled Calibration 1
2021
11067
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archival pigment inkjet
15h × 20w in • 38.1h × 50.8w cm
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Dodge and Burn (Visible Storage)
2019
11070
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This installation collapses together images and objects referencing American colonialist expansion in the Philippines during the early 1900s, as well as contemporary racial politics and historical amnesia. Archival research of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair collides with contemporary protest imagery, political references, and textiles. Chroma key green, traditionally deployed in digital video post-production, is used in intricate handsewn garments, backdrops, and props, including a 19th Century American dress, MAGA hats, tiki torches, and artificial houseplants. The allusion to postproduction and image manipulation is a direct reference to the construction of an American narrative that is itself a problematic construction.
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Cargo Cults (Cover-Up)
2016
11068
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archival pigment print
20h x 15w in • 50.8h x 38.1w cm
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Block Out the Sun (video)
2021
11064
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single-channel video (00:05:09), with sound
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Fixed Focus (Dead Center)
2021
11066
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36 pigmented inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Baryta mounted on 2mm E-Panel
11h x 8 .5w in • 27.94h x 21.59w cm (each) 71h x 56w in • 180.34h x 142.24w cm (overall)
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Installation views of Fixed Focus - Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery
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Pileup (Brass Bells)
2021
11069
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hand-assembled pigmented inkjet prints on Hahnemuhle Baryta
36h in x 48w • 91.4h x 121.9w cm (framed)
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Selected Exhibitions

Selected Videos

Selected Press

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