Tabitha Soren
Born 1967, San Antonio, Texas
Lives and works in the San Francisco Bay, California area
SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
J. Paul Getty Museum
Houston Museum of Fine Arts
Harvard Art Museums
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
George Eastman Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
New Orleans Museum of Art
Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco, CA
Oakland Museum of California
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art
Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA
Worcester Museum of Art, Worcester, MA
Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College, Claremont, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
“Relief” Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA, February 10 - April 1 2023
2022
“Relief” Jackson Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA, September - December 2022
2021
“Surface Tension” Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA, September - January 2022
“Surface Tension” SFO Museum, San Francisco, CA, September - January 2022
2019
“Surface Tension” Transformer Station, Cleveland, OH, October - January 2020
"Surface Tension" The Davis Museum, Wellesley, MA, February - August 2019
2017
"Fantasy Life" Silver Eye Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, December - February 2018
"Surface Tension" Orth Contemporary, Tulsa, OK, December - January 2018
"Surface Tension" Rental Gallery, East Hampton, NY, August - September
"Fantasy Life" San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco, CA, July - March 2018
"Surface Tension" Euqinom Gallery, San Francisco, CA, May - June 2018
2016
"Safe at Home" Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, April - June
2015
"Fantasy Life" Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, April - June
"Panic Beach" Erica Tanov, San Francisco, CA, April - May
2013
"Running" Kopeikin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, April - May
2012
"Running" Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN, June - July
2011
"Dreamtime" Branch Gallery, Oakland, CA, September - December
2006
"Life in the Minors" Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA, April - September
"Recalling Democracy" Photolab Gallery, Berkeley, CA, June - September
"Discrete Matters" Zinc Gallery, San Francisco, CA, April - July
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
“Get In The Game,” SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, Fantasy Life, Curators: Katy Siegel, Jennifer Dunlap-Fletcher & Seph Rodney, October 19 2024 - February 20 2025
“Designing Motherhood,” National Design & Architecture Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, Motherload, Curators: Michelle Millar Fisher & Juliana Barton, June 2024 -March 2025
“Touch,” Princeton Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, Surface Tension, Curators: Susan Bright & Susannah Baker-Smith, May 11- August 4
“Retake,” Harvey Milk Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, Weathering, Curator: Maren Levinson, May 4th - June 4th
“New Terrain: 21st-Century Landscape Photography,” Worcester Art Museum, Worcester MA, Surface Tension, Curator: Nancy Kathryn Burns, April 6 - July 7
“On Art and Motherhood” curated by art critic & writer Hettie Judah and Hayward Gallery Touring’s curators - Featuring: Louise Bourgeois, Marlene Dumas, Rineke Dijkstra, Tala Madani, Tracey Emin, Jenny Saville & Tabitha Soren, among others - February 9th - December. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by Thames & Hudson. Arnolfini, Bristol: 9 March - 2 June 2024 MAC, Birmingham: 26 June - 6 October 2024 Millenium Gallery, Sheffield: 24 October 2024 - 21 January 2025
“A Fire That No Water Could Put Out : Civil Rights Photography,” Surface Tension, organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, in collaboration with the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, Nov 30, 2023 - Mar 10, 2024
2023
“Small Is Beautiful XXXXI,” Flowers Gallery Cork Street, November 25 - January 8, 2022, London, UK
“What Has Been and What Could Be: The BAMPFA Collection,” Organized by Berkeley Art Museum Executive Director Julie Rodrigues-Widholm, June 7 2023 - June 2024
“Surface Tension” Photo Biennale, Daugu, South Korea curated by Michel Frizot & Doyeon Kim, September - October 2023
“Soft Mirror,” Rule Gallery Denver + Marfa, curated by Britland Tracy - Featuring: Kei Ito, Dionne Lee, Rafael Soldi, & Tabitha Soren - March 17 - May 6 - Denver, CO
“collective selection / selective collection,” Rivalry Projects x Samsøñ, April 28 - June 16, 2023 - Curator: Camilo Alvarez, Buffalo, NY
“Sneaker Wave,” M Stark Gallery, curated by Marianna Stark - April 1- May 20 - Half Moon Bay, CA
“Small Is Beautiful XXXX,” Flowers Gallery, Nov 24 2022- Jan 7 2023, Cork Street, London, UK
2022
“Looking Forward” Pier 24 Photography - Curators: Chris McCall & Allie Haeusslein, San Francisco, CA
“Against The Image: Photography. Media. Manipulation.” Ulster Museum - Curators: Clare Gormley & Anna Liesching, June - October, Belfast, Northern Ireland
“Designing Motherhood” MassArt Art Museum - Curators: Michelle Millar Fisher & Amber Winick, June - December, Boston, MA
“Beyond The Frame” Museum of Contemporary Photography - Curator: Kristin Taylor, June - October, Chicago, Illinois
2021
“Small Is Beautiful” Flowers Gallery - Cork Street - London , United Kingdom
“We Speak Our Truths : Portraits of Mamahood, “ Motherload project, curated by Kate Fauvell , ChaShaMa Gallery, New York, NY
“The Iconic Jersey” Worchester Art Museum - Curator: Erin Corrales-Diaz, Worchester, Massachusetts
2019
“Another West” Fraenkel Gallery - Curator: Richard Misrach Sept. 5 - Oct. 19, San Francisco, CA
“Aperture Photographs,” Aperture Gallery - Curators: Lesley A. Martin, Chris Boot & Kellie McLaughlin, New York, NY
“California Governor’s Art Project” California Statehouse - Curator: Joni Binder, Sacramento, CA
2018
"Way Bay" Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive - Curator: Larry Rinder, Berkeley, CA
"Care and Feeding" Palo Alto Art Center - Curator: Selena Foster, Palo Alto, CA
"Wonder Women" Berkeley Art Center - Curator: George Krevsky, Berkeley, CA
2017
"Whitney Houston All Women's Biennial" Shasama Gallery - Curator: C. Finley, New York, NY
"Light Sensitive" Art Intersection - Curator: Ann Jastrab, Gilbert, AZ
"I Dread To Think" Dorsky Gallery - Curator: Liz Blum, New York, NY
"I Dread To Think" Mills Gallery, - Curator: Liz Blum, Boston, MA
2016
"Photography Is Magic" Aperture Gallery - Curator: Charlotte Cotton, New York, NY
2013
"The Bidwell Collection of Photography" Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX
"Light of Day" Transformer Station - Curator: Todd Hido, Cleveland, OH
2012
"Fresh" Klompching Gallery - Curator: Fred Bidwell, Brooklyn, NY
2011
"Mega" Southern Exposure Gallery - Curator: Courtney Fink, San Francisco, CA
"Woman As Photographer" Weisman Art Museum - Curator: Christina Chang, Minneapolis, MN
"Wide Open" Brooklyn Waterfront Artists' Coalition, Brooklyn, NY - Curator: Nathan Trotman, Associate Curator at the Guggenheim Museum of Art, NY, NY
"Moments of Being" Wallspace Gallery -Curator: David Bram, Santa Barbara, CA
"Perceive and Place" Berkeley Art Center - Curator: Suzanne Tan, Berkeley, CA
"Fraction: Three Years in the Making" Rayko Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2010
"The Curve" Newspace Center for Photography - Curators: Laura Valenti & Chris Bennett, Portland, OR
"Art Masterminds" Project One, San Francisco, CA
"24th International Juried Show" Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ - Juror: Susan Kismaric, Curator, MOMA, NY
"Childhood" Dougherty Art Center, Austin, TX
2009
"An Idea of Home" The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK
"Ersatz" SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA
2008
"Katrina Revisited" Superalright, Austin, TX
"Way Down In New Orleans" Civilian Art Projects, Washington DC
2007
"Katrina Exposed" New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
2006
"Mayhem" Southern Exposure Gallery - Juror: Julie Joyce, San Francisco, CA
"Currents" Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
"Contemporary Photography: New Acquisitions" Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
BOOKS
2023 Eye Mama: Poetic Truths of Home and Motherhood, Editor: Karni Arieli, Motherload Series, teNeues Verlag Publishing
2022 Looking Forward , Editor: Philip Gefter, “Surface Tension” essay by Jia Tolentino, Pier 24 Collection Publication
2022 Photographs That Make You Think, Editor: Henry Carroll, “Surface Tension” included in Land, the Sublime, Abrams Publishing
2022 Zyzzyva, Editor: Laura Cogan, “Some Blows Are Heavy” and “Running,” Issue 123 Spring 2022
2021 Surface Tension, (Monograph) RVB Books, Paris - Nominated for the Prix Nadar
2021 The Iconic Jersey, Erin R. Corrales-Diaz, “Fantasy Life”, Catalogue for Exhibit at Worcester Art Museum
2021 A Place Like Mississippi, W. Ralph Eubanks, “Weathering”, Timber Press
2021 Photographers Looking At Photographs, Editor: Allie Haeusslein, Pier 24 Collection Publication
2020 Running, Falling, Flying, Floating, Crawling, Editor: Mark Alice Durant, “Running,” St. Lucy Books
2019 On Death, Editor: Kris Graves, “Panic Beach,” Humble Arts Foundation Publication
2019 Body: The Photography Book, Editor: Nathalie Hershdorfer, “Fantasy Life,” Thames & Hudson Publishing
2018 Trace, Surface Tension, Yoffy Press
2017 Fantasy Life, ( Monograph) Aperture
2012 Running, (Monograph) Self-published, hand-made edition of 100
SELECTED AWARDS, LECTURES AND RELATED ARTICLES
2023
Local Language Art, Artist in Residence, Oakland CA, July - October
Whitewall Art, “Tabitha Soren Creates Relief In Her Images And For Her Viewer” by Katy Donoghue, February 14
Oxbow School of Art “Conversations In Practice” Residency, February - March
2022
“In Conversation: Tabitha Soren and Darius Himes,” International Head of Photographs, Christies, History Center, Atlanta, GA, Sept. 15
International Women’s Day Annual Lecture, National Museum of Women in the Arts, with curator Orin Zahra, Washington DC, March 8th
2021
Prix Nadar Nomination for Surface Tension book by the Biblioteque Nationale in France, published by RVB Books
Atlantic Magazine, “Motherload” Portfolio, interview by Sophie Gilbert, May
The New Yorker, “Picturing the Humanity and Dread of the Infinite Scroll” written by Jia Tolentino, September 1
On Stage Conversation with Tabitha Soren and Sarah Thornton, Danforth Hall Mills College, Oakland, CA, October 4
Harper’s Magazine, “Stopping Distance” a short story written by David Means, December
2020
Hyperallergic, “Tabitha Soren Looks Beneath the Surfaces of Tech,” written by Sarah Rose Sharp, January 15
Just Connect: An On Stage Conversation with Writer & Curator Nora Khan, Transformer Station, Cleveland, Ohio, January 16th
Strange Fire Collective, Interview with Tabitha Soren by Jess T. Dugan, January 23
2019
Artist Talk, Transformer Station, Cleveland Ohio, October 27th
Linda Wyatt Gruber ‘66 Annual Lecture, Wellesley College, April 17th
Interview Magazine, Interview with Tabitha Soren by Judith Thurman, March 18
Garage, “The Intersection of Technology and Touch,” February 12, written by Cassiday Dawn Graves
ArtNet, “A New Body of Work Examines our Relationship with Technology,” February 11, written by Eileen Kinsella
Newsweek, “Haunting Evidence of Technology’s Troubling Grip,” February 6, written by Mary Kaye Schilling
The Washington Post, “Surface Tension: Evidence of the Invisible,” February 6, written by Chloe Coleman
Women’s Wear Daily, “Photographer Tabitha Soren Explores Technology’s Hold on Humanity,” February 4, written by Rosemary Feitelberg
2018
Musee Magazine, "Seduced By The Lens," February 26, interview by Hannah and Cailin Loesch
Facebook Artist Residency, San Francisco, CA
Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers, 12th annual exhibition, Barcelona Spain
Lenny Letter, "What Does It Mean to See As a Woman?" January 16, written by Molly Elizalde
2017
FotoFocus, "Second Century: Photography, Feminism, Politics," Keynote Speaker, October 7
City Arts and Lectures, In Conversation with Steven Winn, September 27, Nourse Theater, San Francisco, CA
Dazed, "Our Digital Consumption Revealed in Surface Tension," September 12, written by Sarah Rosen
George Eastman Museum Artist Talk, August 9, Rochester, NY
Pop Up Magazine Tour, May 31 - June 1, Curran Theater, San Francisco, CA
Charlie Rose Show Interview, Surface Tension & Fantasy Life, May 4, New York, NY
Wired, "Tabitha Soren's Surface Tension Proves Greasy Smudges Are Art," May 5, written by Laura Mallonee
Aperture/Parsons Annual Lecture, April 4, New York, NY
Phoenix Art Museum, Artist Talk, March 15, Phoenix, AZ
The New Yorker, "Fantasy Life: The Dream Chasers of Pro Baseball," written by Doug Glanville
The Washington Post, “After ‘Moneyball’, Tabitha Soren kept shooting.” March 23, written by Geoff Edgers
New York Review of Books, "Mixed Up Kids," written by Nathaniel Rich
Artsy Editorial, "An Unexpected Second Act," written by Scott Indrisik
Surface, Portfolio, March/April, Fantasy Life Series
The Guardian Newspaper, Portfolio, Fantasy Life Series
The Wall Street Journal, “Tabitha Soren and the other meaning behind the Moneyball A’s,” March 27, written by Ben Cohen
2016
California Sunday Magazine, Portfolio, September, "Panic Beach" Series
The Photographic Journal, Interview with Tabitha Soren by Lou Noble
Lenny Letter, "Tabitha Soren Sees Things," Surface Tension Review, written by Laia Garcia
Humble Art Foundation Newsletter, "Tabitha Soren Freezes the Smudges of Image Overload," written by Jon Feinstein
Virginia Quarterly Review, Surface Tension Portfolio, written by Allison Wright
Diablo Women Artist Talk, May 5, Oakland, CA
Chosen AI+AP Best of American Photography Collection
2015
Houston Center for Photography, Artist Talk, October 2nd
Dear Dave, "This American Moment," Portfolio, Running Series, essay written by Mark Alice Durant
White Hot Magazine, "Fantasy Life Hits Its Mark," Exhibition Review, written by Shana Nys Dambrot
The Huffington Post, Fantasy Life Exhibition Review, written by Mat Gleason
Vanity Fair, April Issue, "Fantasy Life Exhibit Preview," written by Dave Eggers
Vanity Fair, April Issue, “Batter Up! Baseball Tintypes You’d Want as Trading Cards” April 6
California Sunday Magazine, April Issue, Fantasy Life portfolio
ESPN Magazine, March 2, "Faces of the Revolution" Fantasy Life portfolio
2014
Photo RAW #24, "The Moment of Fear" Running portfolio, written by Anni Kossi
2013
Apology, Summer Issue, "Ducks on a Pond," Fantasy Life portfolio
2012
Blink Magazine, Issue #15, August, Running portfolio, written by Aram Kim
Two Running portfolios in McSweeney's Quarterly, No. 39, published by Dave Eggers
Slate, "Running for the Camera: Tabitha Soren's Fine Art Workout," May 16, written by Heather Murphy
It's Nice That, UK, "Katrina: Uprooted by Tabitha Soren," written by Bryony Quinn
2010
Director's Choice Award, Review Santa Fe, Laura Valenti and Chris Bennett, Directors, Newspace Center for Photography
Photography Prize awarded by MOMA Curator Susan Kismaric, for the Visual Arts Center of NJ
2007
Selected AI + AP Best of American Photography Collection