Rachel Zaretsky is an artist and educator based in Los Angeles. She works with video, performance, installation, and photography to untangle the social space of memory and how it is reconstructed in public. She examines how systems of authority frame highly publicized tragedies that mold our collective memory. Central to Zaretsky’s practice is amassing and organizing materials as evidence. She sifts through commemorative detritus, which includes found imagery, archival material, and testimony to understand what was forgotten and lost through active processes of remembering.
She received her MFA in Art from the University of Southern California’s Roski School of Art and Design and her BFA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her work has been exhibited Human Resources, 18th Street Arts Center, and UTA Artist Space in Los Angeles; it has also been screened in New York and Germany.
Curriculum Vitae
University of Southern California | MFA Art | Los Angeles, CA | 2019-2021
UCLA Extension | Specialization in Film Editing | 2018
The School of Visual Arts (SVA) | New York, NY | Visual and Critical Studies (BFA) | 2011-2015
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2020 USC Shoah Foundation | Visual History Archive | Beth and Arthur Lev Research Fellowship
2019 Asylum Arts + Institute of Jewish Creativity | Grant
2018 The School of Making Thinking: Scores Residency | Rochester, NY
PUBLIC TALKS
2021 Roski Talk Series | Los Angeles, CA
2021 USC Shoah Foundation | Research with Testimonies | Los Angeles, CA
2020 Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery | ARCHIVE MACHINES: Conversations with Artists
PERFORMANCES AND SCREENINGS
2021 Come a little Closer | 18th Street Art Center | Los Angeles, CA
2018 Institutional Papers: A Reading organized by the Los Angeles Contemporary
Archive (LACA) | The Acid Free Book Market | Blum and Poe | Los Angles, CA
2017 Permanent Collection Film Festival | Project Gallery | Toronto, ON
2017 Louvre Underground Screening | organized by Sascha Brosamer | Paris, France
2016 Darkness into Light Festival | The New Museum of Networked Art | Cologne, Germany
2016 Rachel Zaretsky: Thoughts on Germany’s Counter Monuments | KK19 | Berlin, Germany
2015 A Ghost Walks Through a Bar Video Screening | Smiles N Styles | Brooklyn, NY
2015 Performance commissioned by FABNYC (Fourth Arts Block) |
For Lower East Side History Month
SOLO EXHIBITION
2024 An Index of Americanisms, Winslow Garage
2021 Walking Along the Memorial Wall | USC Roski Mateo Gallery | Los Angeles, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 After Hours: People Who Work Here | David Zwirner | New York, NY
2021 Don’t Look Now | Human Resources LA | Los Angeles, CA
2021 In Cahoots | UTA Arts Space | Los Angeles, CA
2020 Archive Machines | Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery | Los Angeles, CA
2017 Waves to Live By | Lump Gallery | Raleigh, North Carolina
2016 Open House | Group Show | 9 Monroe Street, Chinatown, NY
2016 The First Day of Spring | 892 Lorimer Street | Brooklyn, NY
2016 The Value of the Product of the Period or Value of the Product of the Period or Products of
Social Memory or Products of Valid Memory or Products of Valued Memory |
Curated by Lily Roche | 286 Grand Street | New York, NY
2015 Oneiric Apparatus | Presented by The Art Theory Project | Williamsburg Community Center |
Brooklyn, NY
2015 Strangers Forming a Group Waiting to Kiss | Motel Gallery | Brooklyn, NY
2015 COLLABO5 | Bakehouse Art Complex | Miami, FL
2015 Carnivalesque | Thesis Exhibition Show | SVA Gallery | New York, NY
2014 Oceans of Notions | Swampspace | Miami, FL
2014 The beach the pier the mall the club | Curated by Rivers Plasketes | Soloway Gallery |
Brooklyn, NY
2013 Mapping Thinking Spaces | Visual and Critical Studies Exhibition | SVA Gallery| New York, NY
CURATORIAL WORK : HOSTING PROJECTS
2019 A Reading in Texture | Valerie Kamen, Jason Lipeles, Isabel Legate | Driveway 327 | Venice, CA
2019 Maybe a Fire! | Holly Harrell | Driveway 327 | Venice, CA
2018 Well, acting Itself is a form of disobedience, always | Marcel Alcala, Diana Lozano,
Lucia Del Sanchez | Swampspace | Miami, FL
2018 w.i.p | Solo Exhibition | Lauren Taylor | Driveway 327 | Venice, CA
2018 Late Bloomer Late Bloomer | Screening and Archival Presentation | Ben Gould and
Gabriella Lacza | Los Angeles Contemporary Archive
(LACA) | Los Angeles, CA
2018 Late Bloomer Late Bloomer | Installation and Performance | Ben Gould and Gabriella Lacza |
Driveway 327 | Venice, CA
2018 A Snake Don’t Slither it Crawls | Solo Exhibiton | Conner Calhoun | Driveway 327 | Venice, CA
2015 A Ghost Walks Through a Bar | Screening | Smiles N Styles | Brooklyn, NY
2015 Either Way I’m Celebrating: 40 Artist Group Show | Lower East Side, NY
2015 The Thorn That Adorns | Solo Exhibition | Isabel Legate | Lower East Side, NY
2014 From the street I can see the moon | Solo Exhibition | David Johnson | Lower East Side, NY
2014 Solo Exhibition | Cody Goebl | Lower East Side, NY
2014 House Scarf | Solo Exhibition | Conner Calhoun | Lower East Side, NY
CURATORIAL WORK : INDEPENDENT
2015 On Taking Photographs | Group Exhibition | David Johnson, Julia Santoli,
Lucia Del Sanchez | 1828 Troutman St. | Bushwick Open Studios | Brooklyn, NY
ESSAYS
2024 Kline, Dana. Forgetting Until Tomorrow
2021 Valencia, Joseph. A Walk Along the Memorial Wall
SELECTED PRESS
2021 Stromberg, Matt. “Funny, Generous and Honest: MFA work from UC Riverside and USC Roski”,
Hyperallergic.
2021 Almino, Alyssa Wouk. “How Cameras and Webcams Have Helped Us Bear Witness in 2020”,
Hyperallergic.
2020 Abe, Ahn. “An Online Archive Tells an Alternate History of US Monuments and Architecture”,
Hyperallergic.
2016 Buffenstein, Alyssa. “Male Guilt and Damp Butts Required: A New Art Show in the LES” , VICE.
Hyperallergic.
2021 Almino, Alyssa Wouk. “How Cameras and Webcams Have Helped Us Bear Witness in 2020”,
Hyperallergic.
2020 Abe, Ahn. “An Online Archive Tells an Alternate History of US Monuments and Architecture”,
Hyperallergic.
2016 Buffenstein, Alyssa. “Male Guilt and Damp Butts Required: A New Art Show in the LES” , VICE.