Laia Abril: On Rape and Institutional Failure
October 15 – January 11, 2027
International Center of Photography
79 Essex St, New York, NY 10002
Scheduled
About This Event
Laia Abril brings On Rape and Institutional Failure to the International Center of Photography. Abril, a Catalan artist and writer whose photo-based work traces how institutions shape women’s lives, stages documents, testimonies and images from her A History of Misogyny project—particularly On Rape—using evidence and structure to examine the narratives and systems that enable sexual violence.
About On Rape and Institutional Failure
At the International Center of Photography, Catalan artist Laia Abril presents *On Rape and Institutional Failure*, part of her ongoing inquiry into misogyny and its afterlives in public life. The exhibition traces how gendered myths and stereotypes shape the way sexual violence is recorded, doubted, and processed by institutions meant to provide care and justice. In a city where policing, media, and courts are constant subjects of scrutiny, the work reads less as an isolated case study than as a map of systemic habit. Its restraint is the point; it insists that procedure can be a form of violence.
About the Artist
Laia Abril
Laia Abril is a Catalan artist and writer whose photo-based work traces how institutions shape women’s lives, from health and grief to law and public policy. Her books include *The Epilogue* (2014) and the ongoing series *A History of Misogyny*, which has moved from abortion restrictions to the narratives and systems that enable sexual violence in *On Rape* (2022).