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Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman (b. Philadelphia, 1986) directs civic rituals and interventions within overwritten and denied places and materials, authoring corollary poems, films, essays, and installations. Often in collaboration with specific communities and other artists, Yerachmiel Sniderman's contributions establish difficult situations for durational contemplation and vernacular rites, manifesting a quiet language of intense proximity over time by tending accidents, anxieties, and memory.

Major works include Lost in Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee (2016–19); Night Herons (2020–21), recipient of the ING Polish Art Foundation Grand Prize, created with Joanna Rajkowska; Wierzba Estery / Esther’s Willow (2018–), created with Katarzyna Sala and Marta Sala; يان الصعود الى السماء flight manifesto (2019–25), created with Dirar Kalash et al.; and خاکی خەیاڵکراو Imagined Land Axê Xeyal Kirǐ (2023–), created with Nastaran Saremy.

These and other projects have exhibited in 48 Stünden Neukölln (GE), Audain Gallery at Simon Fraser University (CA), De Kijkdoos Public Space (NL), FestivALT (PL), Galerie im Turm (GE), Lokal 30 (PL), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul (KR), steirischer herbst (AT), SAHMAT (IND), and Western Gallery at Western Washington University (US); and supported by local institutions and organizations such as Canadian Kurdish Community Centre (CA), Cascadia Deaf Nation (US), Grupa Granica (PL), House of Taswir (GE), Irena and Mieczysław Mazaraki Museum (PL), Municipal Library of Chrzanów (PL), Urban Memory Foundation (PL), and zapomniane (PL). Works are in the permanent collections of Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, ING Polish Art Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the private collection of MKM Gallery Berlin.

Yerachmiel Sniderman holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute and a Master of Fine Arts from Brown University, where at both institutions he studied poetics and playwriting. He is Assistant Professor of Socially Engaged Art at Western Washington University's Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies (US), teaching experiential, participatory, peripatetic, and process-oriented studio seminars and global learning programs. In 2023-2024 and 2026, he served as Visiting Professor at the Institut für Kunst im Kontext (Institute for Art in Context), Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) Berlin.

Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman

  • Born in 1986 in Philadelphia, the United States of America

    Resides and works in Bellingham, the United States of America

Education

  • 2005-2009: BFA in Writing for Media, Publication, and Performance, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, the United States of America     

  • 2010-2012: MFA in Literary Arts, Brown University, Providence, the United States of America

Teaching positions (select)

  • 2022-present: Assistant Professor in Socially Engaged Art, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University, the United States of America

  • 2026: Visiting Professor, Institut für Kunst im Kontext (Institute for Art in Context), Universität der Künste (University of the Arts), Berlin, Germany

  • 2023-2024: Visiting Professor, Institut für Kunst im Kontext (Institute for Art in Context), Universität der Künste (University of the Arts), Berlin, Germany

  • 2021-2022, Teaching Professor in Socially Engaged Art, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University, the United States of America

  • 2019-2021, Teaching Professor in Jewish American Studies, American Cultural Studies, Western Washington University, the United States of America

Solo exhibitions

  • 2025, 'Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman: Walking in Ethnocidal Places', Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

  • 2024, 'Joanna Rajkowska: Night Herons', Lokal 30, Warsaw, Poland

  • 2024, 'Wierzba Estery / Esther's Willow' (with Katarzyna Sala, Marta Sala), MultiMemo: Multidirectional Memory, Remembering for Social Justice / Municipal Public Library of Chrzanów, Chrzanów, Poland

  • 2022, 'Wierzba Estery / Esther's Willow' (with Katarzyna Sala, Marta Sala), 6th FestivALT: Arkhiv / CentrALT, Kraków, Poland

  • 2019, 'Lost in Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee', Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA

  • 2012, 'we hear same' (with David Bernstein), De Kijkdoos Public Space, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Group exhibitions

  • 2025, 'We Want the Whole Life. Shared', Galeria Studio, Warsaw, Poland

  • 2025, 'The Body Called Palestine', SAHMAT / Bangalore International Centre, Bengaluru, India

  • 2025, 'Transdiaspora', 48 Stunden Neukölln Festival, Berlin, Germany

  • 2025, 'The Body Called Palestine', SAHMAT, Delhi, India

  • 2025, 'Art of the Moving Image: Polish Animation and Film Avant-Garde', Adam Mickiewicz Institute / National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Seoul, South Korea

  • 2021, '5th FestivALT: New Realities and Possible Futures', Galicia Jewish Museum, Kraków, Poland

  • 2020, 'steirischer herbst '20: Paranoia TV', Graz, Austria

  • 2019, 'Jewish Geographies: Jewish Space in Contemporary Art', Center for the Arts, University at Buffalo, the United States of America

  • 2018, 'Unidos por el Arte / United by Art: Humanized Nature', Galería del Consulado de México en Tucson, the United States of America

  • 2009, 'Seeds of the Wild', Puffin Room Gallery, New York, the United States of America

Permanent Collections

  • Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland

  • ING Polish Art Foundation, Warsaw, Poland

  • Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland

Commercial collection

  • MKM Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Screenings

  • 2026, 'Axa Xeyal Kirin Imagined Land خاکی خەیاڵکراو (Oak's Night)' (with Nastaran Saremy), Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  • 2026,   بيان الصعود إلى السماء flight manifesto', Galerie im Turm, Berlin, Germany

  • 2025, 'We See Wir Sehen' (with Adi Liraz), Λοφος Art Project, Athens, Greece

  • 2025, 'Night Herons' (with Joanna Rajkowska), Meno Avilys Cinemateque, Vilnius, Lithuania

  • 2025, ‘شهداء i דיבוקים’ (Dybbuks and Martyrs)’ (dir. Joanna Rajkowska), Understanding Public Space: Innovative Methods and Concepts for Interdisciplinary Research, Urbanita, Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences / Display Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

  • 2025, 'Night Herons' (with Joanna Rajkowska), Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland

  • 2024, 'Night Herons' (with Joanna Rajkowska), Muzeum HERstorii Sztuki MuHer, Pałac Krzysztofory / Muzeum Krakowa, Poland

  • 2022, 'Night Herons' (with Joanna Rajkowska), Forum of the Future of Culture: Migrations and Climate, Arsenał Gallery, Białystok, Poland

Public projects and performances

  • 2025, 'Axa Xeyal Kirin Imagined Land خاکی خەیاڵکراو (Oak's Night)' (with Nastaran Saremy), Canadian Kurdish Community Center / Democratic Kurdish Federation of Canada, Toronto, Canada

  • 2018-ongoing, 'Wierzba Estery / Esther's Willow', Irena and Mieczysaw Mazaraki Museum / Municipal Center of Culture of Chrzanów / FestivALT / Urban Memory Foundation / Fundacja Zapomniane, Chrzanów, Poland

  • 2025,' شهداء i דיבוקים (Dybuki i męczennicy/Dybbuks and marytyrs)' (with Joanna Rajkowska, Julie Weitz), Never Again for Anyone Demonstration, Plac Wolnica, Kraków, Poland

  • 2019-2025, بيان الصعود إلى السماء flight manifesto (with Brel Froebe, Cascadia Deaf Nation, Dirar Kalash, Samara Hayley Steele, et al.), Whatcom County, the United States of America / Kafr Qari, Israel

  • 2024, 'WE SEE / WIR SEHEN / ΕΜΕΙΣ ΒΛΕΠΟΥΜΕ' (with Adi Liraz, Eliana Pliskin Jacobs), Mavili Square, Ioannina, Greece / Westhafen, Berlin, Germany

  • 2023, 'DO NOT UPROOT / NIE WYKORZENIAJ' (with Joanna Rajkowska and Grupa Granica), Charles de Gaulle Roundabout, Warsaw, Poland

  • 2022, 'I, Earth' (dir. Joanna Rajkowska), New Performance Turku Biennale: Coming Together, Turku, Finland

  • 2018, 'Lost in Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee', Institut für Kunst im Kontext, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) / Universität der Künste, Berlin, Germany

  • 2016, 'Internal' (with Perin McNelis), Exploded View Gallery, Tucson, the United States of America

  • 2013, 'Revisiting Voice Graffiti', Counterpath, Denver, the United States of America

  • 2012, 'Voice Graffiti' (with Matthew Daniel), Granoff Center for the Arts, Brown University / Cathedral Square, Providence, the United States of America

  • 2009, 'Fingertips of the Vital Blackbirds', The Jalopy Theater, Brooklyn, the United States of America

  • 2008, 'Sleep          Shit', Ontological-Hysteric Theater, New York, the United States of America

  • 2008, 'Mi Constans Tomach Floor My Constant Stomach Floor', 5th Floor Drawing Rooms, Main Building, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, the United States of America

  • 2007, 'Morning Morning', Memorial Hall, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, the United States of America

  • 2007, 'Today's Vengeance', Bowery Poetry Club, New York, the United States of America                                                                                                     

  Grants, awards, and residencies

  • 2025, Mašarto Award (shortlisted), walk listen create, Brussels, Belgium

  • 2024-2025, Thesis Completion Fellowship, Simon Fraser University, Canada

  • 2024, ING Polish Art Foundation Main Prize (with Joanna Rajkowska and Lokal 30), Warsaw, Poland

  • 2019-2023, Graduate Dean's Entrance Scholarship, Simon Fraser University, Canada

  • 2018-2019, Curatorial Fellowship, Bruna Press + Archive, Bellingham, the United States of America

  • 2018, Long-Term Research Grant, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Program) / Institut für Kunst im Kontext (Institute for Art in Context), Universität der Künste (University of the Arts), Berlin, Germany

  • 2017, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, the United States of America

  • 2017, Arizona Humanities Grant, Tucson Jewish History Museum, the United States of America

  • 2013, Confrontation Poetry Prize, Long Island University, New York, the United States of America

  • 2012, Creative Arts Council Grant, Granoff Center for the Arts, Brown University, Providence, the United States of America

  • 2011, Jokowski Summer Research Award, Brown University, Providence, the United States of America

  • 2010-2012, Graduate Fellowship, Literary Arts, Brown University, Providence, the United States of America

Publications by the artist (select)

Press, criticism, interviews (select)

Artist talks, literary readings, interviews, academic presentations (select)

Portrait by Cheong Kin Man.