Orejarena & Stein
Orejarena & Stein (b. Colombia, 1994 & UK, 1994) are a multimedia artist duo currently based in New York. Their work uses the intersection of technology, memory, and desire to explore American mythologies and narratives as they grapple with their relationship to the country that has become their adopted home. Orejarena & Stein are fascinated with the emergent property that comes with making each photograph together with a single camera. Their work explores notions of the collective and collaboration in an often individualistic medium. Their work often involves extensive research into how their images relate to collective image making and the ocean of images surrounding us.
Orejarena & Stein’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at Vin Gallery in HCMC, Jiazazhi Press’s project space in Shanghai, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art in Hanoi, FOAM museum for contemporary photography in Amsterdam, Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, Palo Gallery in New York, The Curator’s Room in Amsterdam, Belfast Photo Festival, Arles Photo Festival, Encontros da Imagem, among others. Orejarena & Stein’s work is in a number of public & private collections, including The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Nguyen Art Foundation, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, New York State Museum, and The Ann Tenenbaum & Thomas H. Lee Family Collection.
A book of their work, Long Time No See, was published by Jiazazhi Press in 2022 and is held in the special collections library of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art, amongst others. Their second book, American Glitch, with an introduction by ICP curator David Campany, is published by Gnomic Book. The duo has also compiled a booklet with contributions from 36 renowned artist, writers, and curators, offering a range of perspectives on conceptions of glitch in contemporary society to be paired with the artist book. The artists’ first European solo show Tactics & Mythologies which will open in early September at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich.
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Instagram: orejarena_stein_studio
Artworks
Installation View
Recent Works
American Glitch
American Glitch explores the friction between fact and fiction and how this is manifested in the U.S. landscape. An ocean of information leaves us questioning what is real — and what isn't. In an era defined by screens, the notion that we’re in a simulation has become popular, often in a satirical cultural protest to late stage capitalism, disinformation and increased technological dependence.
Andrea Orejarena and Caleb Stein spent years treating the internet as their collective subconscious, collecting social media posts of people’s 'real life glitches' as part of their lengthy research process, which are presented in the book as four dimensional reverberations through time and space; the duo later made formal photographs of a series of sites around the U.S. which are reminiscent of the glitches.
Andrea Orejarena and Caleb Stein spent years treating the internet as their collective subconscious, collecting social media posts of people’s 'real life glitches' as part of their lengthy research process, which are presented in the book as four dimensional reverberations through time and space; the duo later made formal photographs of a series of sites around the U.S. which are reminiscent of the glitches.
Currently, “American Glitch” will be screen during the BEST OF Night of the Year / Nuit de l'année at Arles Les Recontres De La Photographie. This is an event, which is a visual walk through about fifty photographic proposals projected in loops onto large screens throughout summer. Favorites and cartes blanches are proposed for this great celebration of photography which also features performances and DJ sets. ︎More about the event
Publication
From this project, they published a book alongside an independent publishing, Gnomic Book. The book includes an essay by David Campany, entitled The Glitch is in Us, and a 52 page insert placed into the book, featuring contributions from 36 renowned artists, writers and curators.
“Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein’s American Glitch so brims with its own inventive play and suggestive commentary on its motifs and methods, that it is probably best not to write about it directly. They have made a kind of essay in visual form, and I am thinking of the root of the word ‘essay’ in the French ‘essayer’: to test, to try out. Theirs is an act of creative and intellectual speculation, and as such, it invites something similar from us. So instead of any direct writing, it is the root of another word I would like to reflect upon here: glitch.“ (The Glitch is in Us by David Campany)
︎Click here to buy the book
“Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein’s American Glitch so brims with its own inventive play and suggestive commentary on its motifs and methods, that it is probably best not to write about it directly. They have made a kind of essay in visual form, and I am thinking of the root of the word ‘essay’ in the French ‘essayer’: to test, to try out. Theirs is an act of creative and intellectual speculation, and as such, it invites something similar from us. So instead of any direct writing, it is the root of another word I would like to reflect upon here: glitch.“ (The Glitch is in Us by David Campany)
︎Click here to buy the book