Caleb Stein (b. 1994, London) is an artist, writer, and editor based in Brooklyn, working across photography, video, installation, and artist books. For Stein, attention is a raw material: he stays with a place or a system until perception itself is enriched and widened. He believes Anonymous is the greatest photographer.
His work moves between lyrical documentary and conceptual inquiry: Down by the Hudson, made over more than a decade at a swimming hole in the Hudson Valley; How to Move a Mountain, on robotic carving in the marble quarries of Carrara; and American Glitch, made with Andrea Orejarena, which examines viral images and the beliefs that gather around them. As Orejarena & Stein, the two presented their first solo museum exhibition, Viral Hallucinations, at Deichtorhallen Hamburg in 2024; it traveled to Photoforum Pasquart in 2025.
Stein’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Nguyen Art Foundation, Foam, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, among others. It is held by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, and the Thomas H. Lee and Ann Tenenbaum Family Collection, and has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, The New York Times, and Kunstforum International.
His books include Down by the Hudson (Palo Gallery Press, 2026), with texts by Amitava Kumar, Anita N. Bateman, and Matt Carey-Williams; How to Move a Mountain (Luhz Press, 2024), with a text by David Campany; and, with Orejarena, American Glitch (Gnomic Book, 2024), also with a text by Campany, and Long Time No See (Jiazazhi Press, 2022), with texts by Do Tuong Linh and Forensic Architecture. Car Wash, edited and sequenced by Campany, is forthcoming from Luhz Press in 2027. He is co-founder and co-editor of September, an annual artist-run anthology whose first volume, Map of Maps, gathers nearly sixty artists, writers, and curators. His criticism has appeared in Dear Dave and Impulse.
Stein is represented by Palo Gallery, New York, and Vin Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City / Shanghai, and also collaborates with ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles, and Matt Carey-Williams Gallery, London.
* with Andrea Orejarena, as Orejarena & Stein
Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2027 Down by the Hudson, Matt Carey-Williams Gallery, London (forthcoming)
2026 American Glitch, Paris Photo, Grand Palais, solo presentation with Palo Gallery. Digital Sector curated by Marco De Mutiis, Fotomuseum Winterthur*
2026 Down by the Hudson, Sixteen World at Oddity, Paris
2026 Down by the Hudson, Palo Gallery, New York
2025 Viral Hallucinations, Photoforum Pasquart, Biel/Bienne. Curated by Amelie Schüle, from the exhibition originated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich at Deichtorhallen Hamburg*
2024–25 Viral Hallucinations, Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Curated by Nadine Isabelle Henrich and Sarah Gramotke*
2024 How to Move a Mountain, ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles
2024 American Glitch, Palo Gallery, New York*
2022 Down by the Hudson, ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles
2021 Full of Surprises, Vin Gallery, Ho Chi Minh City*
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 The Year Is XXXX, Nguyen Art Foundation, Ho Chi Minh City. Curated by Sofia Thieu D’Amico, with An-My Lê, Thao Nguyen Phan, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, among others*
2025 Collection galleries, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Curated by Malcolm Daniel and Lisa Volpe
2024–25 Foam Talent, Foam, Amsterdam, and Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt*
2024 Hard Copy, WSA Building, New York. Curated by Aaron Stern, with Jeff Wall, John Divola, and Mary Frey, among others, and traveled to Webber Gallery Los Angeles and Dashwood Projects, New York
2023–24 Love Languages, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Curated by Anita N. Bateman, with Dawoud Bey, Francesco Clemente, Nicole Eisenman, and Sally Mann, among others
2023 Maison Palo, Palo Gallery, New York. Curated by Paul Henkel and Sophia Herring, with Alexander Calder, Edgar Degas, Dora Maar, and Judy Chicago, among others
2023 The Authentic Self, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie. Curated by Jessica D. Brier and Mary-Kay Lombino, with Graciela Iturbide and Tomoko Sawada, among others
2022 The Curator’s Room, Amsterdam. Curated by Gabriel Rolt, with Francisco Goya and Jake and Dinos Chapman, among others*
2019–20 Foliage III, Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, Hanoi. Curated by Mizuki Endo and Do Tuong Linh*
Books
2027 Car Wash, Luhz Press (forthcoming). Edited and sequenced by David Campany
2026 Down by the Hudson, Palo Gallery Press. Texts by Anita N. Bateman, Amitava Kumar, and Matt Carey-Williams; interview with Daniel Wolff
2026 Map of Maps, September, No. 1. Co-edited with Andrea Orejarena and Rain Chan
2025 Glitch Typologies, Palo Gallery Press. Text by Nadine Isabelle Henrich*
2024 How to Move a Mountain, Luhz Press. Text by David Campany
2024 American Glitch, Gnomic Book. Text by David Campany*
2022 Long Time No See, Jiazazhi Press. Texts by Do Tuong Linh and Forensic Architecture*
Collections
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College
New York State Museum, Albany
Nguyen Art Foundation, Ho Chi Minh City
Sixteen World Collection, Paris
Thomas H. Lee and Ann Tenenbaum Family Collection, New York
Books are held in the library collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Getty Research Institute, Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Rijksmuseum, among others.
Awards and Grants
2024 Foam Talent*
2023 Center for Photographic Art Artist Grant*
2021 Hariban Award, Juror’s Pick, selected by Yasufumi Nakamori*
Selected Talks and Conversations
2026 Bildband, Berlin, with Veronika Epple, C/O Berlin (forthcoming)
2026 Sixteen World at Oddity, Paris, with Emilia Mickevicius, Center for Creative Photography (forthcoming)
2026 Gallerie d’Italia, Turin, with Rica Cerbarano (forthcoming)
2026 PHMuseum, Bologna, lecture (forthcoming)
2026 Le Bal, Paris, with Victoria Aresheva, Maison Européenne de la Photographie
2026 Palo Gallery, New York, with A.M. Homes
2026 Quad Cinema, New York, with David Campany and Andrea Orejarena
2025 Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Poughkeepsie, with Jessica D. Brier
2024 Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Viral Hallucinations symposium, organized by Nadine Isabelle Henrich*
2024 Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, with Shana Lopes, SFMOMA*
2024 ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles, with David Campany
2022 ROSEGALLERY, Los Angeles, with Ryan Linkof, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
2021 International Center of Photography, New York*
2020 Christie’s Education, London*
Selected Press
2026 Vince Aletti, “Down by the Hudson,” Goings On About Town, The New Yorker
2026 Kathryn Humphries, “Down by the Hudson,” Harper’s Magazine
2026 Sarah Gilbert, “Down by the Hudson: Ode to a New York Swimming Creek,” The Guardian
2026 Madeleine Pollard, “Dreamy Photos from an ‘Illicit’ Hudson River Swimming Spot,” Dazed
2026 Franziska Kunze, “Instability: Glitch Ecologies,” EIKON*
2025 Stefan Günther, “Virale Halluzinationen,” Neue Zürcher Zeitung*
2025 Taliesin Thomas, “15 Art Shows to See in Upstate New York,” Hyperallergic
2024 Oskar Piegsa, “Die weiteren Aussichten,” Die Zeit*
2024 “Trau deinen Augen nicht,” Der Spiegel*
2024 Rainer Unruh, “Andrea Orejarena & Caleb Stein: Tactics & Mythologies,” Kunstforum International*
2024 Madison Freid, “11 Books We Can’t Stop Thinking About,” Vanity Fair*
2023 “Can Robots Replace Michelangelo?,” Smithsonian Magazine, cover story
2023 “The Beautiful Desolation of Life on Mars, on Earth,” The New York Times*
2023 Rica Cerbarano, “The Value of Expanded Authorship,” Vogue Italia*
2022 Amitava Kumar, “An Ode to the Queen City of the Hudson,” The New York Times
Selected Writing
2026 “Foxes Curled Together for Warmth: Emmet Gowin at Pace,” Dear Dave Magazine
2026 “Cyan Is the Last to Go,” on Brea Souders’ Blue Women, Impulse Magazine
2026 “Roy Lichtenstein’s Mirror Paintings,” Impulse Magazine
2026 Texts on Amin Yousefi, Taysir Batniji, Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s Evidence, and Raf Fellner, in Map of Maps (September, No. 1)
Education
2017 BA, Art History, Vassar College. Thesis on Brassaï and the photobook, advised by Molly Nesbit
Full CV available on request
Contact
Palo Gallery, 21 E. 3rd Street
sascha.lewit@palogallery.net & alyssa.glenn@palogallery.net
Studio
castein468@gmail.com
