Josh Azzarella

Josh Azzarella is the Wallace Herndon Smith Visiting Lecturer (2024-25) at Washington University in St. Louis’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. He teaches in the Master of Design for Human-Computer Interaction and Emerging Technology programs, as well as the Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art programs. His multidisciplinary practice spans video, objects, and photography, interrogating how authorship shapes collective memory and the boundaries of reality. Azzarella merges new media (e.g., AI) with historical techniques like electromagnetic levitation and custom lathe-cut records.

His work is featured in SFMoMA, MFA Houston, and LACMA collections. Notable exhibitions include “Fear of Electric Light” (Barr Gallery, 2023), “Triple Feature” (City Gallery Wellington, 2022), and “Craft as a Tool for Activism” (Museum of Craft and Design, 2021). Collaborations include projects with Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra.

• Awards: 2006 Emerging Artist Award (Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum), 2003 Fassbender Award for Excellence in Photography
• Discourse: Discussed in Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and Visual Ethics (Routledge, 2018)

Azzarella’s research challenges the evidentiary role of imagery, as noted by critics like Shana Nys Dambrot, who highlights his exploration of memory, attention, and experience.