Mar 27–Aug 25, 2025
MoMA
Julien Ceccaldi’s first US solo museum exhibition, Adult Theater, held at MoMA PS1 from March 27 to August 25, 2025, offers a compelling journey into the artist’s vivid reinterpretation of contemporary life. This large-scale installation transforms the architectural space of the first-floor galleries into an immersive painting, enveloping visitors in a distorted narrative that reflects the complexities of everyday digital domination and rampant consumerism. Ceccaldi masterfully blends historical techniques such as trompe l’oeil and freeze frame with modern animation styles, inviting viewers to explore the deceptive visual narratives that govern our media-saturated existence.
Rooted in his early exposure to 1990s anime broadcast on France Télévisions, and influenced by pioneering Japanese shōjo manga creators as well as the introspective comics of Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Ceccaldi’s art is an intricate amalgam of social critique, personal narrative, and emotional nuance. His work traverses the realms of drawing, painting, and sculpture, capturing the tension between the polished surfaces of digital media and the raw, handmade essence that reveals the vulnerability and conflict within his characters.
Ceccaldi’s distinct style dismantles the promises of seamless connectivity offered by media technologies, presenting instead a fragmented, melancholic, yet romantically charged portrayal of modern social life. Visitors to Adult Theater are invited to confront the multifaceted realities of hyperconsumerism and digital subjugation through an artistic lens that is at once retrospective and radically current.
Living and working in New York City, Julien Ceccaldi has shown his work internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Guadalajara, London, New York, and Cologne, and participation in notable group exhibitions across Geneva, Arles, Dijon, Ontario, and Berlin. He is also an accomplished comic artist, with several independent and anthology publications to his name. Curated by Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curator at MoMA PS1, this exhibition continues the museum’s commitment to presenting innovative contemporary artists who interrogate the intersections of culture, technology, and identity. For more details, visit the official exhibition page here.
