the work of media artist
JOHN SANBORN
Heaven+Earth
a project by John Sanborn and Ionee Waterhouse
curated by Laura Barreca
Museo Civico di Castelbuono, Sicily
May 24 – August 30, 2026
Opening: May 24, 12:00 PM
Heaven+Earth explores the human condition through the duality of matter and spirit, finiteness and transcendence, tangible reality and imagination—a syncretic reinterpretation that bridges the myth of the visionary and the irrational with Baroque symbolism and a post-human, neo-mythological imagination. The work expresses the existential tension that defines the dual nature of humankind: the constant confrontation between mortal nature and the desire for eternity, between the aspiration toward a celestial condition and belonging to the earth.
Heaven+Earth is realized with the support of the PAC – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea 2025 promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
With Anchovies
a series of 5 AI works on the subject of the challenges of existence
When asked “what do you want?” I inevitably ask for anchovies. The smoky, salty, sturdy fish taste adds a enigmatic zing to whatever I am eating. So. Why not add anchovies to everything? Art, song, romance, and pain - all taste better with anchovies.
Like picking a seed from between your teeth, comprehension has been transfigured from dignified philosophy to watchful maintenance. We attempt to ignore that which fuses what we know, and what it is impossible to understand. But sure enough, the shock of uncertainty returns.
With Anchovies is an exploratory exploitation that fragments our illusion of normality, using an insistent questioning of how “real” our lives seem, while in fact they are bat shit crazy.
Each work selects a manner of chaotic catalyst, into which a mash up of witchcraft and unreality are baked, until what emerges is ironic, satiric, amusing. and just plain dumbfounding.
Sedition.com digital editions
February 2026
Videoformes 2026, Clermont-Ferrand, France | March 9 to 29, 2026
Signatures – Oculus of the Comédie:
Palazzo Anima Mundi - Soul of the World, Venice Italy
RITUALS May 20 – June 04 2026
CONSCIOUSNESS June 19 – July 03, 2026
VISIONS July 17 – 31, 2026
Ars Moriendi
Ideal Glass Studios
9 W 8th Street
New York, N.Y. 10011
October 31st | November 3 12026
Cuban Fine Arts/Ed Steinberg and Ideal Glass Studios are pleased to announce the debut of Ars Moriendi, media artist John Sanborn’s newest experiment in Augmented Reality storytelling.
As an AR ghost story, the delight of discovery is key to experiencing the details of the lives of two ghosts, Norma (Sarah Cecilia Bukowsky) and Maria (Lali Wilde) whose confessional and enigmatic comments about the after-life are chilling, soulful and funny.
Out of Chaos
Galerie Anita Beckers
Braubachstrasse 9, 60311 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
January 24, 2025 – March 15, 2025
The exhibition comprises three works that address socio- political issues as well as our everyday struggle to structure our shattered surroundings into narratives that underlie our existence.
Intimate Archeology (2024)
with Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
Out of Chaos | Push the Button (2025)
Created by John Sanborn + Lali Wilde
I AM (2025)
Created by John Sanborn + Louise Soulié-Dubol and Xavier Lavernhe
Out of Order
MEET Digital Culture Center
Viale Vittorio Veneto 2 – 20124 – Milan
June 5 - August 31, 2024
curated by Maria Grazia Mattei
"Out of Order presents “anarchic” art scenarios that trigger questions we need to face, pushing us to feel involved and participate. Not always to solve our problems, but to face our condition, understand it and ask to do something to change, starting with ourselves"
An exhibition that spans multimedia installations spanning over four decades of exploration of sound, music, interactive media, video and artwork that tackles issues of identity – even gender –, cultural truth, memory and mythology.
Notes on Us
Kunsthalle Praha, Prague
February 29 - June 3, 2024
Curator: Barbora Ropkováa
Kunsthalle Praha hosts the first-ever solo exhibition of John Sanborn’s work in the Czech Republic, titled Notes on Us.
The exhibition features V+M, (2015) a 9 channel instalation which was acquired by the Kunsthalle Praha in 2022, and Mythic Status (2016) , 4 portraits of gender queer performers portraying gods of the ancient world.
“Sanborn was never an activist artist, yet all his videos from the first decade of his career were celebrated what we can now call difference. Already in his early work, one of his main interests was interpersonal relationships, which naturally blended with his passion for storytelling,” elaborates Ropková, offering insight into the content of Sanborn’s art.
Between Order and Entropy
catalog/monograph
296 Pages, 520 Illustrations
Inspired by the exhibiton Between Order and Entropy; curated by Stephen Sarrazin and Philipp Ziegler
Edited by: Stephen Sarrazin, Peter Weibel
"This monograph brings together a collection of works that spans over four decades of exploring sound, music, cultural identity, memory, mythologies, and the human compulsion to tell stories. Essays by video art experts, reminiscences by companions, and a conversation between Sanborn and acclaimed media artist Dara Birnbaum explore the tension between mass media and contemporary art.
Sanborn himself traces the unique arc of his career and talks about a journey that took him from museums and alternative spaces to television networks, Hollywood and Silicon Valley before returning to the art world. Few other artists working with media can claim to have delved into so many visual territories."
Between Order and Entropy
works 1978 - 2022
July 9 - October 30, 2022
Curated by Stephen Sarrazin | Philipp Ziegler
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
The exhibition presents the work of the American artist John Sanborn. This exhibition, which is the largest in Europe devoted to the artist, brings together a collection of works that spans over four decades of sound, music, interactive media and video exploration.
Sanborn's recent work consists of complex media installations that address issues of cultural identity, memory, mythologies, and the human compulsion to tell stories.