Lee Shulman & Omar Victor Diop Being There 57, 2023
TITLE_NAME :
The Anonymous Project presents Being There
22/04/2025 - 13/06/2025
HOUK Gallery
Edwynn Houk Gallery
693 FIFTH AVENUE, 6TH FLOOR
10022 New York
www.houkgallery.com
Being There is a reimagining of 20th-century visual history. Conceived through a vibrant collaboration between British-French artist and filmmaker Lee Shulman—founder of The Anonymous Project, an expansive archive of mid-century amateur color photography—and Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop, the series places Diop within original vernacular photographs, creating imagined yet believable scenes that invite viewers to reconsider who gets to be seen, remembered, and included. Being There joins the archive in a spirit of play and purpose, offering a warm and generous invitation to reshape history. Blending performance, photography, and archival excavation, the project reshapes the American story quietly but powerfully, underscoring how visibility—especially within the imagery of the everyday—is not just symbolic, but essential to belonging. It speaks to the complexity of the nation’s cultural imagination, honoring its history while questioning who that history has served and who it has left out.
22/04/2025 - 13/06/2025
HOUK Gallery
Edwynn Houk Gallery
693 FIFTH AVENUE, 6TH FLOOR
10022 New York
www.houkgallery.com
Being There is a reimagining of 20th-century visual history. Conceived through a vibrant collaboration between British-French artist and filmmaker Lee Shulman—founder of The Anonymous Project, an expansive archive of mid-century amateur color photography—and Senegalese artist Omar Victor Diop, the series places Diop within original vernacular photographs, creating imagined yet believable scenes that invite viewers to reconsider who gets to be seen, remembered, and included. Being There joins the archive in a spirit of play and purpose, offering a warm and generous invitation to reshape history. Blending performance, photography, and archival excavation, the project reshapes the American story quietly but powerfully, underscoring how visibility—especially within the imagery of the everyday—is not just symbolic, but essential to belonging. It speaks to the complexity of the nation’s cultural imagination, honoring its history while questioning who that history has served and who it has left out.