Lehmann Maupin presents Shattering and gathering our traces, an exhibition of new work by French-Algerian artist Kader Attia, marking his first solo presentation in New York in over five years and the US debut of several new bodies of work. Featuring sculpture, installation, collage, and film, the exhibition bridges Attia’s long-standing engagement with repair, identity, and postcolonial critique with a new body of work centered around shattering and gathering. Across the exhibition, Attia seeks to reconstruct interpersonal connection and understanding by engaging viewers in a collective and poetic space. This exhibition comes on the heels of a string of institutional presentations around the world, including the solo exhibitions A descent into paradise, which traveled to MUAC in Mexico City and the Amparo Museum in Puebla, Mexico, and The lost paradise at CAAC Sevilla in Spain. Additionally, Attia is currently included in the 36th São Paulo Biennial, entitled Not all travelers walk roads / Of humanity as practice, on view through January 11, 2026. He recently served as an artist in residence at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, through the institution’s “Les Hôtes du Louvre” (The Hosts of the Louvre) program, where he maintained an on-site studio.

Attia grew up between Bab el Oued, Algeria and the suburbs of Paris. Drawing from his experience of living within two disparate cultures, he has developed a complex, multi-media practice that examines the intricacies of social, historical, and cultural differences across the globe, demonstrating how individual and cultural identity is constructed within the context of political domination and conflict. Often using artifacts, discarded quotidian objects, and wartime ephemera to create poetic installations, Attia transforms the space of a gallery into one of introspection, allowing the viewer to become aware of the complicated and often inaccurate depiction of our multiple histories.

Shattering and gathering our traces draws on Attia’s background in history and politics to speak to the reconstruction of identity within the structures of contemporary society. As with much of his work, Attia introduces sculptural interventions across the exhibition through the use of fragmented mirrors, interactive elements, and familiar objects like suitcases to turn his works into sites of self-reflection by implicating the viewer in their activation. Here, Attia focuses on gathering in response to shattering; specifically, the artist positions gathering as a means of collective identity building by resisting the lure of individualism enabled by an increasingly digital world. In particular, the works in Shattering and Gathering our Traces address our contemporary fixation with technology and social media, which creates digital crowds of countless isolated individuals under the guise of connection.