MoMA Exhibition Explores Body Politics and Public Space Through Feminist and Intersectional Lenses

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York launched the exhibition Taking Back Our Space: Photographic Perspectives on 20 September 2026, running until 2 May 2027. The show centres on a seminal feminist photographic project that analysed body language as shaped by patriarchal structures, organising images from diverse visual sources such as books, newspapers, advertisements, and film and television stills.

This foundational work categorised body language into ‘female’ and ‘male’ types, revealing how social norms choreograph gendered behaviour in public spaces. The exhibition creates a dialogue between this historical project and contemporary artists who use photography to explore the intersections of space, bodies, and feminist perspectives.

Roxana Marcoci, MoMA’s acting chief curator of photography, highlights that the exhibition not only honours the original project’s impact on feminist art but also rethinks the politics of body and space today. Contemporary artists featured in the show expand the conversation by incorporating intersectional perspectives attentive to race, colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, sexuality, and self-representation.

Among the artists are Nona Faustine, who uses her body to highlight sites marked by histories of enslavement and racial violence; Martine Gutierrez, who challenges identity construction through multiple creative roles; and Joiri Minaya, whose work critiques the exoticisation and commodification of Caribbean women. The exhibition also includes Yuki Kihara, whose photographs of Indigenous Samoan fa’afafine models shift narratives from colonial gazes to self-representation, and Wendy Red Star, who transforms archives into living Indigenous memory.

Further contributions come from K8 Hardy and Paulina Olowska, who investigate how gender and identity are continuously performed and rewritten through bodily gestures. The exhibition underscores that questions of public space and gender fluidity remain central to political debates, with issues identified decades ago evolving into new complexities.

By situating the original feminist photographic project within a broader contemporary framework, Taking Back Our Space invites visitors to reconsider how bodies inhabit and claim public spaces today. It establishes a critical platform for ongoing artistic exploration of identity, power, and representation.