Martha Rosler in Conversation with Julia Bryan-Wilson

Pratt Fine Arts' Civic Engagement Series

Organized by Alex Strada, Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow

Pratt is honored to welcome artist Martha Rosler and art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson for a conversation exploring Rosler's powerful, politically engaged work on urbanism, women, war, and forms of resistance.

Julia Bryan-Wilson teaches contemporary art and gender studies at Columbia University. She is the author of several books, most recently Louise Nevelson’s Sculpture: Drag, Color, Join, Face (2023). As Curator-at-Large at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, she has co-curated several exhibitions, including Queer Histories (with Adriano Pedrosa and André Mesquita, 2024). In November 2025 she opens two shows—GUTSY: On Feminist Infrastructure (at the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw) and Lotty Rosenfeld: Disobedient Spaces (at the Wallach Art Gallery, organized with Natalia Brizuela). She interviewed Martha Rosler for the Distinguished Artist Lecture at the 2025 College Art Association annual conference.

Photo courtesy of Julia Bryan-Wilson.

Martha Rosler's practice focuses on issues of the public sphere, addressing cultural and political concerns both domestic and foreign-often through the feminist lens of their impact on the lives of women. For over six decades, Rosler has worked in a variety of media—including video, photography, text, sculpture, performance, and writing—always expanding upon her practice in an ongoing endeavor to incite questions of perception and truth as they relate to an ever-changing sociopolitical landscape. Among the many topics investigated throughout her oeuvre, recurring themes in Rosler's practice include urbanism, spaces of transit, war and national security, and patriarchal expectations of women. Her work invites consideration and critique of the systems governing everyday life, including those that often go unnoticed. In addition to her artistic practice, Rosler's incisive commentary extends to her written work, in published books and essays as well as contributions to newspapers and critical publications.

Rosler's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions globally, with notable institutional solo presentations including at the Tate Modern, London (2022); Museum of Recent Art (MARe), Bucharest, Romania (2022); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Chile (2019); The Jewish Museum, New York (2018); the Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle (2016); the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France (2002); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2000); the New Museum, New York (2000); MACBA, Barcelona, Spain (1999); and the Dia Art Foundation, New York (1989). A retrospective of her work toured five venues in Europe and the United States between 1998 and 2000. Her exhibition on housing, homelessness, and the built environment, which encompasses contributions by many individuals and groups, has been mounted many times throughout the past two decades, including most recently at the MAXXI - National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy (2024). The Martha Rosler Library, a selection of over 7,000 titles in Rosler's personal collection, has toured eight venues across Europe and the United States. Rosler has also published 17 books of photography, art, and writing, in several languages. Her work is featured in scores of public collections globally, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Tate Modern, London, UK; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Rosler is a recipient of the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, Guggenheim Museum Lifetime Achievement Award, College Art Association Distinguished Feminist Award, Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award, the Spectrum International Prize in Photography, and a United States Artists Nimoy Fellowship, among many others.

Rosler lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, where she was born.

Photo: Martha Rosler. Semiotics of the Kitchen (still), 1975. Video (black and white, sound), 6:09 min. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 718.1981. © 2025 Martha Rosler. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intemix (EAI), New York

Pratt Fine Arts' Civic Engagement Fellowship

Fine Arts’ Fellowship in Civic Engagement is a one- to two-year position for an established artist active in collaborative, socially engaged practices that seek to address the social and political realities of communities. The Fellowship fosters interdisciplinary collaboration across the Institute and forges relationships with external communities and organizations. In addition to teaching responsibilities in the Fine Arts Department, the fellow develops programming and/or workshops connecting their practice to internal and external communities.

Alex Strada, Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow, 2024-26

Alex Strada is a multimedia artist and educator based in New York City whose work spans installation, film/video, sound and orality, printed media, participatory workshops, and public practice. Through a research-based approach grounded in transdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement, her projects reimagine systems of power and create platforms for collectivity, civic agency, and political transformation. Since 2022, she has served as the Public Artist in Residence with the NYC Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Her work has been shown internationally including at the Queens Museum, NY; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Project Row Houses, Houston, TX; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, CT; Aurora Biennial, Dallas, TX; Times Square Arts, NY; Anthology Film Archives, NY; UnionDocs, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, NY; Museum of Moving Image, NY; Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Italy; Centro Fotografico Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mexico; Listasafn Árnesinga Museum, Iceland; and MuseumsQuartier, Vienna. Strada’s projects have been featured in the New Yorker, BOMB, New York Times, Hyperallergic, Montez Press Radio, New York Magazine, and WNYC’s The Brian Lehrer Show. Her work has been supported through artist residencies at Artist Alliance Inc., Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Triangle Arts Association, Wexner Center for the Arts, and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center and through grants/fellowships from the Graham Foundation, Artadia, NYFA, NYSCA, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

Strada holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University and is a studio alumnus of the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program. She has taught at RISD, Tyler School of Art at Temple University, The Cooper Union, Columbia University, and in K-12 public schools throughout NYC with Studio in a School. She is the Fine Arts Civic Engagement Fellow and faculty at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.

Photo courtesy of Alex Strada.

Finding Dock 72, 1 Dock 72 Way, Brooklyn Navy Yard, 11205, and Important Access Information

Visitor Access Information – Brooklyn Navy Yard & Dock 72

Access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Dock 72 is restricted. Entry requires either a Pratt ID card or a Visitor QR Code Pass.

Visitor Passes

• All who RSVP will receive an email with instructions for their unique Visitor QR Code Pass, issued the morning of the event.
• Please register each attendee with their individual email address so they can receive their own QR code. One pass per visitor only.
• Look for an email titled DOCK 72 Visitor Check-in Thursday, October 23 from noreply@ng1.angus.mrisoftware.com.
• Check your spam folder if you cannot locate it.
• Passes are valid for October 23 only.

Arrival at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

• By Taxi/Rideshare: Enter Building 77, 141 Flushing Ave as your drop-off location. Use your QR code to access the Yard at the gates located at the end of the Building 77 hall (past the food vendors). Note: Taxis and rideshares are not allowed to pick up inside the Yard. Use Building 77 for both drop-off and pick-up.
• By Car: There is no parking at Dock 72. You must park outside the Navy Yard and walk in.
• By Ferry or Citibike: Dock 72 is located adjacent to the NYC Ferry stop and Citibike station. Shuttles are also available on-site to and from nearby MTA subway stops. More info: Dock 72 – Getting There