See & Experience
Gina Osterloh, Blank Athleticism #1, 2007, lightjet digital c-print 42 x 53 inches.
Courtesy the artist, Silverlens, and Higher Pictures.
Set Up Situations brings together artists who use photography not merely as a medium of documentation, but as an active tool—one that intervenes, performs, and provokes. These artists approach photography as action: a gesture, a confrontation, and a collaboration. The exhibition invites viewers to consider the emotional and psychological textures embedded within images—what lies beneath the surface, in the act of looking and being seen.
Photography here becomes a form of personal activism—a space where identity, resistance, and self-representation converge. The works reclaim narratives, question visibility, and open dialogue with the unseen or untold. In this way, Set Up Situations embraces photography as an evolving, performative act, where meaning unfolds in the moment of encounter.
The exhibition’s title draws inspiration from a strategy coined by Japanese visual artist Koki Tanaka, who constructs open-ended situations without predetermined outcomes—emphasizing process, unpredictability, and collective experience.
Curated by Julio Cesar Morales.
January 17 – April 26, 2026
Opening Celebration: January 17 | 2–4pm
Set Up Situations
Juan Brennar, Pedro de Alvarado #1, 2018, digital photograph, 50 × 40 inches.
Michael Lundgren, The Algaeic Fox, 2006, pigment print, 35 × 43 inches.
Featuring regional, national, and international artists:
Iván Argote, Juan Brenner, Tania Candiani, Liz Cohen, Ana Teresa Fernández, Kristie Hansen, Jim Jocoy, Michael Lundgren, Mariel Miranda, Reynier Leyva Novo, Omar Sosa, Gina Osterloh, Koki Tanaka, and Richard T. Walker.
Set Up Situations and Young Artists for the Planet are made possible through the generous support of Robin Eber, Tracy Flanagan and Rick Trautner, the Baker Family Foundation, and MarinMOCA's Board of Directors. Special thanks to Natasha Boas for initiating this collaboration between Julio César Morales and MarinMOCA and also to Lucie Charkin and MarinMOCA's Teen Leadership Council.
Koki Tanaka, A Haircut by 9 Hairdressers at Once (Second Attempt), 2010, collaboration, video documentation (28 minutes), Meguro, Tokyo; photo courtesy of the artist, Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, and Aoyama.
Set Up Situations Programs:
Young Artists For The Planet
MarinMOCA’s third annual Young Artists for the Planet program brings together the museum's new Teen Leadership Council with curator Julio César Morales and artist Gina Osterloh. Over the course of the exhibition, this team -- along with museum visitors, friends, and other creative minds -- will create a multisensory archive of place that evokes Marin's hallmark landscapes and explores new ways of encountering nature during rapid environmental change.
