MoMA PS1 Presents First US Museum Exhibition of Artist Julien Ceccaldi

Julien Ceccaldi. Excerpt from the comic Simon’s Thumb.2024. Courtesy the artist.

Julien Ceccaldi’s first US museum exhibition features a newly commissioned large-scale painting that transforms the first-floor MoMA PS1 galleries at an architectural scale. This major work, A Collection of Little Memories (2025), casts visitors into an episode featuring Ceccaldi’s recurring protagonist, Francis, in an elaborate mise-en-scène annotating the assembly-line array of sexual availability provided by networked connectivity. Ceccaldi’s exploded perspective on insatiable desire and endless choice uses allegory to exploit his subject’s enthusiasm for the thrill of a first encounter. On view March 27 through August 25, 2025, the exhibition features a selection of drawings, paintings, installations, and animations that document the 21st-century collision of ideals amid lingering conditions of secrecy, competition, and prejudice.

Ceccaldi’s practice also examines the self-fashioning of personal success, idealized beauty, and fairy-tale satisfaction as modeled by celebrity and influencer culture. In contrast to social media distortions of nostalgia for traditional family values, and patriarchal masculinity as paradigm, his work portrays the inconsistency of these archetypes. Burdened by the pressures of convention, Ceccaldi’s characters verge into delusion, anxiety, and more morbid territories, falling to pieces again and again. Their sometimes-endearing innocence expresses a firm belief in the potential for reciprocal love, despite the rapid passing of time.

With a fatalistic and genre-bending style—influenced by his early exposure to anime that aired on France Télévisions in the 1990s, the transgressive shōjo manga of the Year 24 group, the autobiographical comics of Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and self-published works of manga fan-fiction known as Doujinshi—Ceccaldi amalgamates the discomfort, melodrama, and romance of contemporary social life into shrewdly observed drawing, painting, and sculpture. Despite the smooth circulation and brilliant horizon promised by slick media technologies, his work maintains a handmade quality that mirrors the real agony and emotion of his characters. Across materials and in multiple dimensions, Ceccaldi exploits techniques common to both the animation studio and the Italian Renaissance, including trompe l’oeil, overlay, and freeze frame.

As part of the exhibition, a dedicated screening room with bespoke theatrical seating will play original short animations of Ceccaldi’s comics spanning the previous decade, including Less Than Dust (2014), a parable of neglected friendships in the wake of a devastating crush; Human Furniture (2017), the first installment in which Francis abandons unrequited lust for the epic highs and lows of promiscuity; Solito (2018), a dream sequence on the possibility of unconsummated love with a long deceased prince charming; and Tasteful (2024), in which Francis tirelessly explores app-based cruising and extreme honesty.

Julien Ceccaldi (French/Canadian, b. 1987) lives and works in New York City. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Galerie Tenko Presents, Tokyo (2024); Gaga, Guadalajara (2023); Modern Art, London (2022); Jenny’s and LOMEX, New York (2021); and Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2018). He has participated in group exhibitions at Institut français du Japon, Tokyo, Le Château, Aubenas, MAMCO, Geneva, and Somerset House, London (all 2024); Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, and Le Consortium, Dijon (both 2023); HEAD, Geneva (2022); Oakville Galleries, Ontario (2018); and the 9th Berlin Biennale (2016). His comics have been published independently and in anthologies, including Simon’s Thumb (Neoglyphic Media, 2024), Freeloaders (2021), Divine Judgement (Mould Map 7, 2019), Solito (Kölnischer Kunstverein, 2018), Human Furniture (2017), and Less Than Dust (2014).

The exhibition is organized by Kari Rittenbach, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.

SUPPORT

Leadership support for the exhibition is provided by the Teiger Foundation Exhibition Fund.

Additional support is provided by the MoMA PS1 Emerging Artist Fund.

ABOUT MoMA PS1

MoMA PS1 champions art and artists at the intersection of the social, cultural, and political issues of our time. Providing audiences with the agency to ask questions, access to knowledge, and a forum for public debate, PS1 has offered insight into artists’ diverse worldviews for more than 40 years. Founded in 1976 by Alanna Heiss, the institution was a defining force in the alternative space movement in New York City, transforming a nineteenth century public schoolhouse in Long Island City into a site for artistic experimentation and creativity. PS1 has been a member of New York City’s Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) since 1982 and affiliated with The Museum of Modern Art since 2000.

Hours: MoMA PS1 is open from 12 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday, and 12 to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

Admission: $10 suggested admission; $5 for students and senior citizens; free for New York State residents and MoMA members. Free admission for New York State residents is made possible by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. Tickets may be reserved online at mo.ma/ps1tickets.

Visitor Guide: Discover even more from MoMA PS1 with the Bloomberg Connects app. Read wall text, hear directly from artists, and uncover the building’s history with this multimedia visitor guide. This digital experience is made possible through the support of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Directions: MoMA PS1 is located at 22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Ave in Long Island City, Queens, across the Queensboro Bridge from midtown Manhattan. Traveling by subway, take the E, M, or 7 to Court Sq; or the G to Court Sq or 21 St Van Alst. By bus, take the Q67 to Jackson and 46th Ave or the B62 to 46th Ave.

Information: For general inquiries, call (718) 784-2084 or visit moma.org/ps1.