{"id":468245,"date":"2026-02-09T09:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468245\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:38:14","slug":"sophie-calles-magical-conceptual-art-has-landed-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/468245\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Calle\u2019s Magical Conceptual Art Has Landed in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u2018The<\/p>\n

\u2018The Sleepers (Gennie Michelet, thirteenth sleeper),\u2019 1979. 11 black and white photographs, 1 text. (Photo: Adam Reich, courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)<\/p>\n

Perhaps no one better embodies conceptual art than Sophie Calle<\/a>. Throughout her decades-long career, the French artist has merged everything from photography and film to text and performance, exploring how love, trust, power, death, and storytelling all inform one another. Now, a groundbreaking exhibition charting the full range of Calle\u2019s practice has landed at UC Irvine\u2019s Langson Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most recently on view at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Sophie Calle: Overshare<\/a> is, as its title suggests, not only intimate but deeply provocative. Since the 1970s, Calle has eroded her own privacy in the service of artistic expression and public engagement, meditating upon interpersonal dynamics, visibility, and the self. Calle typically achieves this effect by pairing photographs and text, exposing incidents in her own private life that, by virtue of their intrigue or strangeness, implicate the viewer. Once we encounter her work, it\u2019s nearly impossible to look away.<\/p>\n

Suite v\u00e9nitienne, from 1980, illustrates this point perfectly. For the project, Calle followed an unsuspecting man from Paris to Venice, recording his movements through a furtive collection of images and written reflections. The Hotel, from 1981, is similar in its voyeurism, seeing Calle work as a temporary housekeeper. During the brief stint, she secretly photographed guests\u2019 belongings while cleaning their rooms, conjuring stories about what these objects revealed about their lives. Like Suite v\u00e9nitienne, The Hotel emphasizes the gap between public perception and private reality. But at the same time, the work also wonders whether Calle\u2019s own projections and assumptions about the guests are equally meaningful, complicating the ethics of her surveillance and intrusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalle\u2019s work explores the complexity of human relationships, be it a family member, lover, or friend,\u201d Courtenay Finn, Langson Museum\u2019s chief curator, said. \u201cForeshadowing the current moment where so many of these relationships are performed and played out publicly online for all to see, Calle\u2019s work is a poignant and timely reflection on what it means to be human today.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the heart of the exhibition are Calle\u2019s Autobiographies, an ongoing series that she began in the late 1980s. These two-park works feature a framed photograph alongside a framed descriptive text, offering short vignettes that chronicle episodes from Calle\u2019s life. In this series, as well as her True Stories collection, the artist insists on sharing\u2014or oversharing\u2014parts of herself, raising questions about the sacrifices involved in leading a creative and often public life. Still, as viewers, we wonder if we\u2019re missing something, considering Calle\u2019s secretive and at times unusual tendencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think they know my life, in fact they know nothing because I share a great deal about one moment, one situation, but at the same time, I don\u2019t say anything about my life,\u201d Calle said in a 2024 interview<\/a> with The Art Newspaper. \u201cIt\u2019s overshare and at the same time, hide everything!\u201d<\/p>\n

That paradox is Calle\u2019s guiding principle\u2014and it\u2019s made abundantly clear in Overshare. We\u2019re listening, and being listened to; we\u2019re following, and being followed; and we\u2019re welcomed inside, while also watching through a glass window. Except in Calle\u2019s mind, there\u2019s nothing better than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach idea has its own limit. Is it interesting, poetic enough? Or is it just provocative? Even then, it depends,\u201d Calle continued. \u201cSometimes I like a little provocation because in the end it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophie Calle: Overshare is on view at UC Irvine\u2019s Langson Museum through May 24, 2026.\n<\/p>\n

A groundbreaking survey of Sophie Calle\u2019s conceptual and multidisciplinary practice has just landed at UC Irvine\u2019s Langson Museum, charting some 50 years of work.
\n\"\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019 2018. Pigment print, embroidered woolen cloth, wooden box. (Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019 2018. Pigment print, embroidered woolen cloth, wooden box. (Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Mother-Father,\u2019 2018. Pigment print, embroidered woolen cloth, wooden box. (Courtesy of the artist and Fraenkel Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Night<\/p>\n

\u2018Night Pole\u2019 (detail), 2009. Light box, sandblasted porcelain plaque, video, screen, color photograph, and frame. (Photo: Steven Probert, courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Silent<\/p>\n

\u2018Silent Heart Attack,\u2019 2017. Digital print with text panel. (Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018My<\/p>\n

\u2018My Mother, My Cat, My Father,\u2019 2017. Digital photograph, aluminum, text, and wooden frames. (Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Autobiographies<\/p>\n

\u2018Autobiographies (The Bad Breath),\u2019 1994. Gelatin silver prints and framed text panels. (Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)<\/p>\n

Sophie Calle: Overshare will be on view through May 24, 2026.
\n\"\u2018Night<\/p>\n

\u2018Night Pole\u2019 (detail), 2009. Light box, sandblasted porcelain plaque, video, screen, color photograph, and frame. (Photo: Steven Probert, courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018In<\/p>\n

\u2018In Memory of Frank Gehry\u2019s Flowers,\u2019 2014. Edition of 25. (Courtesy of the artist and Gemini G.E.L.)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Souci<\/p>\n

\u2018Souci (diptych),\u2019 2013. Cyanotype and carbon print. (Photo: Steven Probert, courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018The<\/p>\n

\u2018The Breakup,\u2019 1992. Gelatin silver print and text panel. (Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)<\/p>\n

\"\u2018The<\/p>\n

\u2018The Hostage,\u2019 1992. Gelatin silver print and text panel. (Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin)<\/p>\n

Exhibition Information:
Sophie Calle
Overshare
January 31\u2013May 24, 2026
UC Irvine Langson Museum
18881 Von Karman Ave #100, Irvine, CA 92612<\/p>\n

UC Irvine Langson Museum: Website<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by EJS Media.
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