The New American West: Photography in Conversation
11th June, 2025 – 11th July, 2025
Pierre Yovanovitch Mobilier New York
555 W 25th St 6th floor
New York, NY 10001
A new exhibition in Chelsea, New York, brings nearly a century of photographic perspectives into dialogue, challenging the myths and realities of the American West.
A new exhibition opening on 11 June at Pierre Yovanovitch Mobilier in Chelsea, New York, offers a reframing of the American West—not as a romanticised expanse of untouched wilderness, but as a terrain shaped by competing histories, cultures and perspectives. The New American West: Photography in Conversation, on view until 11 July, presents more than 60 photographs spanning nearly a century, from 1932 to 2024.
Co-curated by gallerist Howard Greenberg and art historian Carrie Scott, the exhibition takes as its starting point the recent journey of photographers Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud, who travelled through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah in March last year. Their images serve as the backbone of the show, placed in dialogue with works by iconic figures such as Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Edward Weston and Mary Ellen Mark, as well as contemporary artists including Jungjin Lee and Wim Wenders.
The result is a portrait of the West that unsettles easy narratives—where grandeur and solitude meet grit and contradiction, and where the natural and human landscapes are in constant negotiation.
“The photographs of Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud are a study in contrasts—cinematic yet intimate, vast yet solitary,” said Greenberg. “They explore the tension between nature’s grandeur and the traces of human presence, revealing the complex realities of the West today.”
While Eisler’s images veer toward the sensual and symbolic, Riboud’s compositions maintain a cooler, documentary distance. The photographers worked side by side but deliberately chose not to share their images during the trip—a strategy that underscores the exhibition’s central theme: that the land reveals itself differently to each lens.
Their work is placed alongside images by mid-century masters such as Bruce Davidson and Dennis Stock, as well as lesser-seen works by Liliane de Cock and Esther Bubley. Together, these photographs reconsider the visual legacy of the West, questioning long-standing tropes while opening up new ways of seeing.
Timed to coincide with the exhibition, a limited-edition book—West West: Twin Perspectives on the American West—offers a more intimate look at Eisler and Riboud’s collaboration. The three-volume slipcased set includes a third, illustrated volume featuring essays by Scott and Greenberg, who contextualise the journey within a broader visual and historical framework.
“The idea for The New American West exhibition began as a way to celebrate the launch of Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud’s book West West—to extend the dialogue beyond the page,” Scott said. “When I pitched the concept to Howard Greenberg as a cross-generational exploration of the American West, he immediately saw its potential. His eye, experience and deep commitment to photography were instrumental in shaping the show, which naturally evolved into a broader meditation on the West itself—its iconography, its contradictions, and its enduring hold on our imagination.”
The installation has been carefully designed to highlight the interplay between image and space. The gallery, Yovanovitch’s US flagship, has been conceived not merely as a backdrop but as an active participant in the viewing experience.
“Design and photography share a fundamental ability to shape perception and evoke emotion,” said Yovanovitch. “With The New American West, we’ve approached the exhibition space as a dialogue between form and image—creating an environment where each photograph resonates within its surroundings. It’s been a privilege to create a setting that enhances the depth and complexity of these works, and I cannot think of a better setting to pay homage to the American West than our US flagship space.”
What emerges is a vision of the West that is neither monolithic nor fixed, but dynamic, interpretive and deeply human. The New American West resists nostalgia and easy symbolism, choosing instead to explore the region as a place of multiplicity—where history, imagination and identity converge.
The New American West: Photography in Conversation opens on the 11th of June, 2025 until the 11th of July, 2025 at Pierre Yovanovitch Mobilier New York
©2025 Pierre Yovanovitch Mobilier
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