Paul Mpagi Sepuya

🪞 Mirrors and reflections play a central role in Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s (@pagmi ) images. They fragment the pictorial space, reassemble it and challenge how we perceive bodies, gazes and desire. 🫆 Sepuya once noticed a fingerprint on a mirror’s surface in one of his photographs. It became visible only because black elements, such as the camera, tripod or black curtains, provided the necessary contrast. This observation opened up a wider enquiry into Blackness as both material and concept in photography. 👉 Listen to Paul Mpagi Sepuya as he shares insights into the creative process behind his work. 📍 Paul Mpagi Sepuya – Focus. Desire. Fotomuseum Winterthur Until 14 June 2026. We look forward to your visit. ✨ The exhibition is supported by the S. Eustachius Foundation and the Ernst & Olga Gubler-Hablützel Foundation. Video: © Fotomuseum Winterthur / Céline Meier #FotomuseumWinterthur #PaulMpagiSepuya #lovewinterthur

Focus. Desire. at @foto_museum Winterthur opened Feb 28 and is on view until June 14 Curated by Doris Gassert and Christopher Nixon, the exhibition includes over 100 works from 2005 - 2025, spanning my early Brooklyn portraits and zine culture to the development of the studio as site, itinerant works that developed into artist volumes, and then back into the studio for what became the umbrella DARK ROOM project. The curators have organized the layout into four sections : 1. Studio 2. Dark Room I 3. Archive and 4. Dark Room II. There will be a catalogue featuring essays by Kobena Mercer, Lily Cho, Ismahan Wayah, Joël Vacheron, Ronald Rose-Antoinette, Stefan Gronert, and the curators Doris and Christopher. It will be available in time for the second iteration opening at Sprengel Museum in Hannover June 30th. photo credits: installation views by Conradin Fei exhibition opening by Johanna Bommer artist walkthrough by Mariella Lorena Preisinger

FOCUS. DESIRE. a survey of work 2005 - 2025 opens February 27 at @foto_museum Winterthur. Curated by Doris Gassert and Christopher Nixon. This conversation began in summer 2023. I’m excited for this first European museum survey! It’ll be on view until June 14 before opening at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover in July.

Studio, May 2025 This Friday May 15 2026 marks ten years at Mirasol St, five in this current studio after the first five years down the hall. Shout out to those first years sharing with Nikita! Since last spring I’ve been slowly, gradually, sometimes frantically clearing many of the objects and pieces used for “Daylight Studio / Dark Room Studio.” And though “TRANCE” is still being worked on it’s the last project in the umbrella “DARK ROOM” series that began in 2016. i’m closing this studio chapter. It’s a process! And very emotionally complicated, logistically confusing, and scary! ** Not sure what or where in LA my next studio or workspace will be. Making room for new risks and ideas. None of the administrative work could have been handled without Nico starting in 2019 and Hope joining in 2020 who kept me on track through a rush of production and the completion of DARK ROOM A-Z in 2024 just as I had to let them go. I will be moving many archive materials, for those interested, to my faculty space at UCSD. ** all while having been working on a 20 year survey w Doris and Christopher at Fotomuseum, it’s a mindfuck. But the timing feels right to move forward into the unknown.

The origins of the first mirror studies (2014 - 2016) began with loose bundles of laser prints during several years of itinerant photography, made a detour through unique book bundles, and finally into compositions on the surface of a mirror in my grad school studio. 1. Study for T.H. with Five Figures (0702), 2013 - 15, 2015 2 and 3. SRP volumes 2 and 5, c2014 - 2017 4. [detail] Studio, November 21, Black is the color (of my true love's hair), 2013 5. Mirror Study, December 10, 2014 [grad school outtake] 6. Study (0109), 2015 [grad school outtake] All on view in Focus. Desire. at @foto_museum :)

IG deleted. trying again. too tired to repost captions for each work but here is a selection from @foto_museum exhibition currently on view in Winterthur. These are from 2008 - 2024

excerpts from another review of the SHOOT zine fascimile, by Megan N Liberty in the @brooklynrail published by @primaryinformation

SHOOT zines republished by @primaryinformation reviewed by Sam Moore for @dazed 📠📸

JIMMY DESANA and PAUL MPAGI SEPUYA @documentspace Chicago what a fabulous pairing, brilliant idea of Aron and Sibylle in collab w Jimmy DeSana Estate @ppowgallery

EXCERPTS & FRAGMENTS w @nomadicdivision currently on view til 12/21 @2413hyperion Thursdays - Saturdays 11am - 5pm and by appt

“Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Excerpts & Fragments” is on view now through December 21 at 2413 Hyperion. Leandro Huerto (@leandrohuerto ) visited the show to speak with Paul Mpagi Sepuya (@pagmi ) and LAND Deputy Director Christopher Mangum-James (@notmagnum ). Watch to learn more about the significance of Paul’s early zines, the unique storefront installation, and more. The exhibition is open Thursday-Saturday from 11AM-5PM, or by appointment. More info at the link in our bio. Video by Leandro Huerto.

Still thinking about this past Saturday’s opening for “Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Excerpts & Fragments” at 2413 Hyperion. Thank you to everyone for coming out. Framed by Hyperion Avenue and the constellation of spaces past and present that have historically brought queer people together, this exhibition presents Sepuya’s own extensive map of personal relationships captured in photographs. Visit the exhibition is open through December 21, Thursday through Saturday from 11AM—5PM. If you would like to visit the exhibition outside of those days and times, please email your preferred date and time to [email protected].  Photos by @ginaclyne .