Andrea Geyer's lens-based practice originates from her studies in photojournalism. Deeply invested in the material poetics of storytelling, her work sheds light on individuals and events characterized by a sustained absence and an inevitable, tangible presence. These stories circulate around historic occurrences, such as Hannah Arendt’s reporting on the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, women’s central role in defining American Modernism and its institutions as a civic endeavor. They also emerge from a thorough examination of place, such as the so-called American Southwest, which, in its reality and photographic representation, remains shaped by stories of settler colonialism and the negation and repression of traditional landowners, both past and present. Additionally, her work reflects on the histories of Germany, her country of origin, where she contemplates both the emergence of her queer identity as a child in the forest and the trauma of fascism and its far-reaching aftermath. Her body of work spans photography, video, text, newsprint, installation, and performance. Exhibitions include the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; Tate Modern and Serpentine Gallery in London; Jumex Foundation in Mexico; Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin; Generali Foundation and Secession in Vienna; Witte de With in Rotterdam; São Paulo Biennial; and documenta 12 in Kassel. She lives and works in New York.
