Christine Mace: Through the Lens
Opening Reception July 9 at 6pm to 8pm
Pen + Brush announces Through the Lens, a photography exhibition conceived with New York–based social documentary photographer Christine L. Mace, on view July 9 through September 12, 2026, in the downstairs gallery at Pen + Brush in New York City. The exhibition is the result of a March 2026 residency in Bhutan conducted through the Disabled People’s Organization of Bhutan (DPOB),during which Mace continued her Sacred Cities series, which began in Nepal with a residency through Gallery Mcube, documenting her own experience and observations throughout Bhutan while teaching student photographers, three of whom have work featured in Through the Lens as a result. Known for her black-and-white photographs that blur visual boundaries, Mace’s Bhutan photos offer audiences an intimate meditation on resilience, interdependence, cultural exchange, and human connection while inviting viewers to reconsider whose perspectives are historically centered, whose experiences remain unseen, and how art can create greater empathy across borders and lived realities.
Through the Lens explores the transformative power of perspective and the many ways individuals move through and experience the world. Mace, who uses a wheelchair herself, traveled to Bhutan to collaborate with Bhutanese artists living with mobility challenges through a series of workshops centered on photography, storytelling, and shared creative practice. Together, participants documented their lived experiences and environments through their own unique visual lenses, challenging assumptions around disability, visibility, movement, and access. The work of three students: Tshering Lhamo, Pema Rigsel, Phub Thinley, is on view alongside never-before-exhibited photographs by Mace. Developed through an intensive residency conducted in partnership with the DPOB, the project emphasized adaptive and inclusive approaches to photographic education, ensuring participants could engage according to their own physical abilities and lived experiences.
“I want them to stop, observe their own community, and think about what is important to visually present, raise awareness, and create a voice through the lens.” — Christine L. Mace
At the center of this exhibition is a shared belief that creativity is not restricted by physical condition and that artistic practice can serve as a powerful tool for self-determination, visibility, and cultural participation.
About the artist:
Christine L. Mace is a New York–based social documentary photographer whose work explores authentic connections between people, spaces, and sites while questioning and examining visibility, marginalization, and the emotional dynamics of contemporary public life. Following a life-altering injury, Mace developed a photographic practice rooted in observation, empathy, and embodied perspective, using the camera as both a documentary tool and a means of humanizing experiences that often go unseen.
Mace has been a mainstay at Pen + Brush since 2019, participating in exhibitions including Furies, Fairies, Visionaries (2019), curated by Alice Gray Stites; Multi (2021); In the House (2023, 2024); and her collaborative solo exhibition Christine Mace: Viewfinder x Heidi Latsky Dance: SOLO FLIGHT (2023). Her work has also been exhibited internationally and featured by institutions and publications including the International Center for Photography Museum, LensCulture, FotoNostrum in Barcelona, Joseph Turenne Gallery in Paris, Dodho Magazine, and Musée Magazine. In 2019, her series Dominoes in Havana received First Place in the Black and White Category at the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.