LINES OF BELONGING AT MoMA: MEMORY, COMMUNITY, AND FUTURE THROUGH CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrates the 40th anniversary of its acclaimed New Photography series with Lines of Belonging, an exhibition that gathers 13 artists and collectives whose practices explore belonging, interconnectedness, and the ways in which communities imagine themselves across time and place. The show will be on display until January 17, 2026.

Drawing on personal narratives and political histories, some of the participating artists reflect on intergenerational memory, while others reinvent the archive as a space to disrupt dominant histories and envision possible futures. As South African artist Sabelo Mlangeni notes, “Love is the key that takes cultures from oppression to joy. As a political unifier, the contract—love—takes on a liberating force.”

The exhibition focuses on artists working in four urban centers—Kathmandu, New Orleans, Johannesburg, and Mexico City—that have long been sites of creativity and cultural exchange, predating the nation-states to which they now belong. Their work resists the fast-paced, profit-driven circulation of digital images and artificial intelligence, proposing instead care, persistence, and slowness as radical forms of resistance.

For the first time at MoMA, audiences will encounter works by Sandra Blow, Tania Franco Klein, and Lake Verea (Francisca Rivero-Lake and Carla Verea) from Mexico City; Gabrielle Goliath, Lebohang Kganye, Sabelo Mlangeni, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa from Johannesburg; Nepal Picture Library, Sheelasha Rajbhandari, and Prasiit Sthapit from Kathmandu; and L. Kasimu Harris, Renee Royale, and Gabrielle Garcia Steib from New Orleans.

The exhibition is organized by Lucy Gallun (Curator), Roxana Marcoci (Acting Chief Curator and The David Dechman Senior Curator), Oluremi C. Onabanjo (The Peter Schub Curator), and Caitlin Ryan (Assistant Curator), Department of Photography.