Ariel Goldberg photographed as the 2024 Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellow for the New York Public Library

Ariel Goldberg is a writer, curator, and educator devoted to trans and queer lineages and lesser-known histories of photography. Goldberg’s books include The Estrangement Principle (Nightboat Books, 2016) and The Photographer (Roof Books, 2015). Their exhibition on photography’s relationship to spaces for learning, Images on which to build, 1970s-1990s was on view at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati as part of the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial, The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in NYC, and the Chicago Cultural Center from 2022-2024. Images… reached 79,000 visitors. Goldberg’s book-in-progress Seeking Captions has been awarded a 2026 New York State Council of the Arts grant with fiscal sponsorship from Magnum Foundation, a 2024 Diamonstein-Spielvogel Fellowship at New York Public Library; and a 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation’s Arts Writers Award.

Goldberg has curated public programs for over fifteen years at venues including Magnum Foundation, The Poetry Project, and Center for LGBTQ Studies at CUNY. With Noam Parness, they co-curated Uncanny Effects: Robert Giard’s Currents of Connection (2020) at Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Their writing on photography and culture has appeared in Lucid Knowledge: On the Currency of the Photographic Image, AfterimageJournal, e-flux, and Jewish Currents. Goldberg’s work has been supported by the New Jewish Culture Fellowship, the Franklin Furnace Fund, and SOMA in Mexico City.

Goldberg has taught photography, writing, and contemporary art practices independently and at Bard College, The New School, New York University, Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, and Rutgers University. They are a proud member of Academics Come Together-United Auto Workers (ACT-UAW) 7902.

Goldberg also works independently as a conflict and divorce mediator.

Reach out for inquiries here:
arielmalkagoldberg at gmail dot com