Geography, radical cartography, politics, and art meet in Trevor Paglen’s work, which explores and exposes the top-secret “blank spots” of and beyond our planet.

Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen is an artist, writer, and experimental geographer who traverses the borders between social science, contemporary art, journalism, radical cartography, and other disciplines to meticulously examine truth in the highly codified world around us. His projects investigate national secrets by photographing classified satellites and military prisons, developing custom software to track CIA rendition flights, and interpreting the symbolism of military uniform patches from classified programs. Paglen is the author of three books and has exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams; The Kitchen, New York; the Taipei Biennial; and the 11th Istanbul Biennial.

Born 1974 in Washington, D.C.
Lives and works in Oakland, CA and New York, NY.