Robert Yerachmiel Sniderman (b. Philadelphia, 1986) makes interventions, essays, performances, poems, films, civic rituals, and installations with/in overwritten and denied places and materials, tracing local experience to and from entangled catastrophes. Often in collaboration with other artists and specific communities, his 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.

Works include Lost in Jüdischer Friedhof Weißensee (2016–19); Night Herons (2020–21), recipient of the ING Polish Art Foundation Main Prize for 2024 Warsaw Gallery Weekend, 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.; WE SEE / WIR SEHEN / ΕΜΕΙΣ ΒΛΕΠΟΥΜΕ (2023–25), created with Adi Liraz; and خاکی خەیاڵکراو Imagined Land Axê Xeyal Kirǐ (2023–), created with Nastaran Saremy.

These and other projects have been exhibited by 48 Stünden Neukölln (GE), Audain Gallery at Simon Fraser University (CA), De Kijkdoos Public Space (NL), FestivALT (PL), Lokal 30 (PL), Municipal Library of Chrzanów (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, Cascadia Deaf Nation (US), House of Taswir (GE), Irena and Mieczysław Mazaraki Museum (PL), Urban Memory Foundation (PL), and zapomniane (PL). Works are in the permanent collections of Arsenał Gallery in Białystok, ING Polish Art Foundation, and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

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 a PhD candidate in contemporary art at Simon Fraser University (CA) and an assistant professor in socially engaged art at Western Washington University (US), teaching experiential, participatory, peripatetic, and process-oriented studio seminars and global learning programs. In 2023-24, 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

  • 2019-2025 pending: PhD, Contemporary Art, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

Teaching positions (select)

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

  • 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, '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

Screenings, performances, public projects (select)

  • 2025 pending, ‘Axa Xeyal Kirin Imagined Land خاکی خەیاڵکراو (Oak's Night)’ (with Nastaran Saremy), Canadian Kurdish Community Center, Toronto, Canada

  • 2025, ‘شهداء i דיבוקים’ (Dybbukim i Shuhada / 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

  • 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 (Dybbukim i Shuhada / Dybbuks and Martyrs)’ (with Joanna Rajkowska, Julie Weitz), Never Again for Anyone Demonstration, Plac Wolnica, Kraków, Poland

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

  • 2019-2025,  ‘بيان الصعود إلى السماء flight manifesto’ (with Dirar Kalash et al.), Whatcom County, the United States of America / Kafr Qari, State of Israel

  • 2023, ‘I, Earth’ (dir. Joanna Rajkowska), New Performance Turku Biennale: Coming Together, Turku, Finland

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

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

  • 2023, ‘DO NOT UPROOT’ (with Joanna Rajkowska, Grupa Granica), Charles de Gaulle Roundabout, Warsaw, Poland

  • 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

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

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

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

Residencies, grants, & awards (select)

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

  • 2024, ING Polish Art Foundation Main Prize (with Joanna Rajkowska, Lokal 30), Warsaw Gallery Weekend, 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 (with Yanara Friedland), 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.