In the late 1960s, as artists across the globe began to question the confines of the gallery and the commodification of the art object, a quiet revolution took shape—on foot. What began as a radical gesture against traditional media evolved into a profound artistic language: walking as art.

Step After Step traces the lineage of this movement, from its conceptual origins to its contemporary resonance. Artists turned to the act of walking not only as a means of mark-making, but as a mode of inquiry—into place, politics, embodiment, and constructed barriers. Inspired by the flux of Dada, the chance operations of Surrealism, and the emerging ethos of Land Art and performance, these works positioned the artist’s body in motion as both subject and tool. Richard Long’s solitary pathworks through the British countryside and the long-distance performances of the 1970s redefined what it meant to make and experience art.

Today, walking endures as an artistic strategy rooted in presence, meditation, and attention. It is both intimate and expansive: a way of recording memory, resisting systems, and mapping the self within a shifting world.

Through a constellation of video, photography, sculpture, ephemera, and participatory works, Step After Step invites viewers to consider the resonance of each step taken—and to imagine how even the most ordinary gesture might be transformed into a profound act of meaning.

Featuring artwork by Marina Abramović / Ulay, Francis Alÿs, Regina José Galindo, Bill Gilbert, Richard Long, Hendl Helen Mirra, Museum of Walking (with Angela Ellsworth and KB Thomason), Paulo Nazareth, Sohei Nishino, Ernesto Pujol, and Kristen Jean Wheatley