Since Jonathan Binstock became the director of the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester for three years ago, he has been looking to capitalize upon MAG and Rochester’s strength in the history of image making. Binstock also had the unusual opportunity to work with John G. Hanhardt, a leading curator of film and media arts who has held key positions at MoMA, the Walker Art Museum, the Whitney and Guggenheim museums.

Together, Binstock and Hanhardt have commissioned a series of works that will both capitalize upon Rochester’s history of image making with Kodak and the George Eastman house as well as extend that tradition by helping establish MAG as a center of film and video art:

Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester announces today a series of media art commissions inspired by the City of Rochester, New York. “Reflections on Place” will feature the work of three international artists: Javier Téllez (Venezuela, b. 1969), Isaac Julien (U.K., b. 1960) and Dara Birnbaum, (U.S., b. 1946). These works will be individually presented from April 8, 2018, and will enter MAG’s permanent collection at the end of the exhibitions.