Opening Reception for Part 1: Saturday, May 2, 2026, 4pm–7pm 

Curator Talk: 4pm

Palomar is a group exhibition about watching the sky, something that appears deceptively simple. Featuring twenty-eight artists, it unfolds in two parts, each five weeks long. Some works remain in place while others come and go, this encounter in time acting like a double exposure. Gradually, the familiar act of looking up spills over into a sense of life that is more layered and complex, or even contradictory. It turns out there is a lot at stake in the space above us. 

Decades ago, after the launch of the first satellite into orbit, humans had big dreams of leaving the Earth. Politicians, poets, and scientists made public comments in this spirit. Today it’s mostly billionaires who talk of escape, or of mining the planets out there. The rest of us look to the sky from the ground as life carries on. An earlier age of optimism around space exploration and human progress has given way to a new era, as the stars fade from view in our cities, new technologies emerge with unsettling effects, and those in power surveil from above. Through it all, the sky is a steady presence. The sun rises and sets. The moon, too. The stars come out, where you can see them. We organize our lives by these patterns. They infuse our concepts, our sense of time, and our language, even when they’re not on our minds.

Part 1 of Palomar introduces certain celestial rhythms and cycles, while thinking about astronomy and other forms of observation in everyday life. It also begins to draw out experiences of time, as it is marked, measured, and perceived. Part 2 brings into view changing relationships with technology and the militarization of the skies. Both parts are shadowed by the question of what one sees and what one doesn’t, and the roles that images play, especially photographs, often wrapped up with the comforts and discomforts of distance. 

The exhibition borrows its title from the name of an observatory on a California mountaintop, which once had the largest optical telescope in the world. It lost that distinction in 1976, but it is still used to study the stars. In the eighties, Italo Calvino wrote a book about a man who shares his name with that place: Mr. Palomar, a seeker of the cosmic in the commonplace and an unflagging, if absentminded, observer. Taken together, these two touchstones evoke different kinds of observation and attention. 

Looking overhead can be a way to understand one’s place in the world, as it has been for thousands of years. Given the many ways people watch the sky or look to the cosmos, from scientific study to the habits of daily life, there are just as many different things to think or feel. The movement of the heavenly bodies offers a measure of continuity in the face of destabilizing change; the view above can be a source of solace, a realm of startling beauty, a reminder of something larger than oneself. The sky can also be a dark premonition, a site of violence or grief, a reminder of what there is to lose, or for many what is already gone. Sometimes it’s all of this at once.

Curated by Karsten Lund.

Artists featured:

Part 1 (May 2–June 7, 2026) 

Darren Almond, Sarah & Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Paul Fägersköld, Pierre Huyghe, Rinko Kawauchi, Jason Lazarus, Tony Lewis, Aspen Mays, Eadward Muybridge, John Opera, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Kathleen Ryan, Carrie Schneider, Heji Shin, Erin Shirreff

Part 2 (June 10–July 13, 2026) 

Sarah & Joseph Belknap, Myriam Boulos, Vija Celmins, Cynthia Daignault, Paul Fägersköld, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sebastian Jefford, Jordan Kantor, Tony Lewis, Eadweard Muybridge, John Opera, Trevor Paglen, Torbjørn Rødland, Kathleen Ryan, Heji Shin, Erin Shirreff, Alec Soth, Shomei Tomatsu, Samira Yamin 

Videos online (Parts 1 & 2)

Allora & Calzadilla, Chantal Peñalosa Fong, Simon Starling, Alice Wang

Credits

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by School Museum Fund, The Hees Family. 

Friends of Palomar Patron Circle: Maria Christina & Guy-Karim Caland Puymartin, and Zach Smith. 

Renaissance Society programs are supported by Teiger Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Events

Opening Reception (Part 1)

Sat, May 2, 4–7pm

Talk at 4PM between curator Karsten Lund and Steven L. Bridges (MSU Broad Art Museum)

Walkthrough (Part 1)

Sun, May 17, 1PM

Led by Karsten Lund

Workshop

Sun, May 17, 3PM

Led by Karsten Lund and Joshi Radin Flores

Performance: Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart

Sat, Jun 13, 4PM

Opening Reception (Part 2)

Sat, Jun 13, 5–7PM

Walkthrough (Part 2)

Thu, Jun 18, 6:30PM

Led by Karsten Lund

Performance Lecture: Day & Night with Sarah & Joseph Belknap 

Sun, Jun 21, 12PM & 10PM

12PM Logan Center for the Arts, Screening Room

10PM Midway Plaisance Winter Garden

Visit renaissancesociety.org for more information.