Expanded Curatorial Programs and Third Annual Art Critics Forum for Seventh Annual EXPO CHICAGO, Including Unprecedented International Initiatives

CHICAGO—EXPO CHICAGO, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, announces the fourth annual Curatorial Forum and third annual Art Critics Forum to take place during the seventh annual exposition (September 27 – 30, 2018). In addition, EXPO CHICAGO presents the official launch of the Curatorial Exchange program in conjunction with China, Denmark, France, Italy and the Netherlands, allowing curators to engage with the more than 135 international exhibitors and organizations participating in EXPO CHICAGO, while getting exclusive access to Chicago’s thriving art scene.  

“We are thrilled to be expanding our 2018 core Forum programming alongside the official launch of the Curatorial Exchange, since the success of the pilot program that led to the major off-site exhibition of the Palais de Tokyo and the Institut français during last year’s exposition,” said EXPO CHICAGO Director of Programming Stephanie Cristello. “EXPO CHICAGO is among the first fairs to initiate and fund a curatorially-driven program of this stature and significance in the United States and remains committed to providing not only a platform for professionals from around the world to engage with the exposition’s deep commitment to critical discourse, but the opportunity to contribute to its legacy as well.”

CURATORIAL FORUM  

Developed by EXPO CHICAGO and Independent Curators International (ICI), the Curatorial Forum offers a group of mid-career and established curators, working independently or with an institutional affiliation, the opportunity to engage with their peers and explore significant issues relating to curating, programming, institution-building and audience engagement. The Curatorial Forum will once again feature a series of invitational sessions focused on critical questions relevant to contemporary practice and context, led by internationally recognized leaders in the field.  

Curatorial Forum Highlights:  

A keynote discussion for Curatorial Forum participants, Chicago professionals and other visiting curators, will be presented by Director of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo Jochen Volz, following Jesús Carrillo (Independent Curator, 2017); and Sally Tallant (Director, Liverpool Biennial, 2016).  

At the core of the Forum, a series of peer-led breakout sessions explore urgent topics in the field today, including “Accessibility,” led by Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Curator Dean Daderko; “Race, Representation, Social Justice,” led by Independent Curator Candice Hopkins; “Labor Conditions,” led by Daniel W. Dietrich II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (ICA) Amy Sadao; and “Critical Regionalism,” led by New Orleans Museum of Art Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Katie Pfohl; among others. This year the Forum will conclude with an Assembly bringing all participants together to further invest into the knowledge exchanged during the program and to foster regional professional networks and collaborations across the American cultural landscape.  

“The Curatorial Forum is a rare opportunity for curators from across the U.S. to convene during EXPO CHICAGO, to share knowledge and experiences among peers and to discuss some of the most urgent questions faced by American art institutions today,” said ICI Executive Director Renaud Proch. “We are proud to continue this collaboration with EXPO CHICAGO, which last year brought together over 30 curators from 17 U.S. states.”  

Alongside the Curatorial Forum, EXPO CHICAGO will present a panel on the /Dialogues stage located on the main floor of the fair, open to all EXPO CHICAGO patrons, on Saturday, September 29, 4:00 – 5:00pm. Titled On Immersion and Senses, the conversation will feature Forum participant Andria Hickey, Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, and Jo-ey Tang, Director of Exhibitions, Beeler Gallery at Columbus College of Art and Design, with Artist Sean Raspet (Jessica Silverman Gallery). The three panelists will trace how the non-concrete senses—scents, tastes and aural forms—are exhibited in space, and will navigate different approaches to displaying pieces whose primary sensual interaction deviates from purely sight. From perfume installations, to sonic experiences and edible artworks, the conversation will trace the impact of senses and immersive practice on recent exhibition histories.  

In addition to the session leaders and keynote speaker, confirmed 2018 Curatorial Forum participants to date include:  

Mara Baldwin | Handwerker Gallery Director  

Andrea Barnwell Brownlee | Spelman College of Fine Art Director  

Rachel Cook | On the Boards Artistic Director  

Eric Crosby |Carnegie Museum of Art Richard Armstrong Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art  

Ryan Dennis | Row House Projects Curator and Programs Director  

Sally Frater | Ulrich Museum of Art Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art  

Elizabeth Gessel | Museum of the African Diaspora Director of Public Programs  

Marcela Guerrero | Whitney Museum of American Art Assistant Curator  

Andria Hickey | Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland Senior Curator  

Henriette Huldisch | MIT List Visual Arts Center Director of Exhibitions and Curator  

Naima Keith | California African American Museum Deputy Director and Chief Curator  

Lucy Mensah | Detroit Institute of Arts Assistant Curator of Post-1950 Contemporary Art  

Srimoyee Mitra | Stamps Gallery Director  

Sofía Gallisá Muriente | Beta-Local Co-Director  

Kim Nguyen | CCA Wattis Curator and Head of Programs  

Karen Patterson | John Michael Kohler Arts Center Senior Curator  

Gabriel Ritter | Minneapolis Institute of Art Curator of Contemporary Art  

Joey Yates | Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft Curator  

*For more information on all Curatorial Forum, click here.

For a full /Dialogues schedule to date, click here.

Curatorial Exchange  

Building upon a pilot program initiated in 2013 by EXPO CHICAGO, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago and the Institut français, EXPO CHICAGO will officially launch the Curatorial Exchange program, an unprecedented international initiative developed in partnership with foreign consulates and cultural agencies. The Curatorial Exchange will offer select mid-career and established curators based around the world the opportunity to engage closely with their peers, convening as part of a four-day program that will include access to exhibitions, top private collections, artist studios, museums and institutions during EXPO CHICAGO.  

Over the four days, visiting curators will have the opportunity to engage with the more than 135 international exhibitors and organizations participating in EXPO CHICAGO, fostering new insights on gallery programs and artists’ practices from around the world. In 2018, the Curatorial Exchange will include more than ten curators from China (supported by the China Arts and Entertainment Group), Denmark (supported by the Danish Ministry for Culture and Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs), France (supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Chicago), Italy (supported by the Italian Cultural Institute) and The Netherlands (supported by the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York). To date, participating curators include Senior Research Fellow of the National Museum of China Chen Lyusheng (China); Curator of the China Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale Dr. Li Xiangning (China); National Art Museum of China’s Curator of the Curatorial and Research Department Liu Chunfeng (China); CAPC Bordeaux Chief Curator Alice Motard (France); Independent Curator and 89plus Europe, Africa and India Director Julie Boukobza (France); GAMeC – Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Chief Curator Alessandro Rabottini (Italy); MART Museum of Trento/Rovereto Director Gianfranco Maraniello (Italy); and Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht Curator of Contemporary Art Paula van den Bosch (The Netherlands).  

Through a series of programs and trips, the initial pilot program culminated in several key projects, supported both by the Institut français, EXPO CHICAGO and the curators’ host institutions in France, including the Méthode Room Residency with Guillaume Désanges and Theaster Gates (2015–present); /Dialogues: Matthieu Poirier in conversation with Daniel Buren (2015); and most recently, Singing Stones, the Palais de Tokyo’s first off-site exhibition in the United States (2017).  

*For more information on all participating curators, click here.

Art Critics Forum  

The third annual EXPO CHICAGO Art Critics Forum will once again highlight significant issues in arts journalism today, hosting leading national and international critics to discuss topics related to writing, authorship and publishing amongst their colleagues and peers. The 2018 Forum, “Criticism and the Image,” seeks to answer how the role of the image has shifted the output of criticism. Through the format of the visual essay, each of the panelists will take part in a short silent presentation before opening into a roundtable discussion. From the perspective of writer John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, through current disseminations of the image and its role as a vehicle for narrative in both online platforms and print publications, this program will consider how the image has either replaced or transformed the purpose of the written word.  

Led by conceptual artist and e-flux Editor Julieta Aranda, the Forum will feature freelance writer and frequent contributor to Forbes, Galerie and The New York Times Ann Binlot; LEAP, The International Art Magazine of Contemporary China, Editor-in-Chief Robin Peckham; Art in America Editor William S. Smith; and Terremotto, Contemporary Art in the Americas, Editor Diego Del Valle Ríos. Presented in partnership with Art and America and Virgin Hotels Chicago.

The Art Critics Forum, open to all accredited press and EXPO CHICAGO guests, will take place Saturday, September 29, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. on the /Dialogues stage. For more information on the program and participants, click here.  

For accreditation information, please visit expochicago.com/media-room.    

About Independent Curators International (ICI)  

ICI produces exhibitions, events, publications, research and training opportunities for curators and diverse audiences around the world. Established in 1975 and headquartered in New York, ICI is a hub that connects emerging and established curators, artists and art spaces, forging international networks and generating new forms of collaborations.  

About the China Arts and Entertainment Group  

China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) was founded in 2004 based on the merger of the China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) and the China International Exhibition Agency (CIEA). CAEG is the largest company of its kind in China in the field of entertainment and arts exhibition, with offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Lanzhou. It consists of nineteen wholly owned enterprises, two share-holding enterprises and one Stock Company, with China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) and China International Exhibition Agency (CIEA) as its core member companies. With a history of more than 50 years, both CPAA and CIEA are China’s largest suppliers as well as operators of Chinese performing arts and art exhibitions globally. Moreover, they are the sole agencies in China operating global business in stage entertainment and art exhibitions. For more than half a century, CPAA and CIEA have gained rich experiences and won acclaimed reputation by undertaking thousands of governmental cultural exchange projects and commercial stage performances and arts exhibitions.  

About The Cultural Services of the French Embassy  

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy provides a platform for exchange and innovation between French and American artists, intellectuals, educators, students, the tech community and the general public. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the US including Chicago, the Cultural Services develops partnership and provides support focusing on six principal fields: visual and performing arts, literature, cinema, the digital sphere, French language and higher education. http://frenchculture.org/  

About the Danish Ministry for Culture and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs  

The Danish Ministry for Culture is responsible for initiatives involving support to creative arts, cultural heritage, archives, libraries, museums and higher education in the areas of art, music, film, theatre and dance. The ministry is also responsible for copyright, broadcasting, sport and international cultural cooperation.  

The Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs comprises the Ministry in Copenhagen and a global network abroad of Embassies, Consulates-General and Trade Commissions. The ministry is responsible for carrying out Danish foreign policy and international relations.  

Together the two ministries have a collaboration agreement on the international cultural exchange and are core members of the Danish International Cultural Panel. The aim of the work is to contribute to initiatives that strengthen links between Denmark and the rest of the world through encounters with other cultures and countries. The International Cultural Panel’s contribution to artistic and cultural development will include relevant narratives about Denmark and the promotion of mutually inspiring, multi-genre collaboration between Danes and people from other countries. Denmark’s international cultural exchange program encompasses the arts and the cultural heritage sector. Artistic quality, originality and relevance are the main criteria for all projects and applications for funding which Denmark chooses to support, whether nationally or internationally.  

About Dutch Culture USA, Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York  

Dutch Culture USA is the division of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ government that supports and promotes Dutch arts and culture in the US. It is the first point of contact for everything that relates to Dutch arts and culture and works closely with all major Dutch cultural organizations and their U.S. counterparts. Its main office is in New York City, where the Press and Cultural Affairs (PCZ) Section of the Consulate-General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands coordinates the cultural network in the US with the other Dutch missions in the U.S. network, including the Netherlands Embassy in Washington, DC and the Netherlands Consulates General in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami.  

About the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago  

The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago is part of a worldwide network of 83 Italian government offices established on all continents with the aim of promoting the Italian language and culture. One of five such offices in the United States (together with New York, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles), the Institute in Chicago also serves as the Cultural Office of the Consulate General of Italy in Chicago. Founded in 1985, the Institute has brought the finest examples of Italian culture to Chicago and the Midwest for over 30 years. Collaborating with the most prominent academic and cultural institutions in the Midwest, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago presents initiatives aimed at showcasing Italian excellence in various fields such as performing and visual arts, science, architecture, fashion, design, literature and film. Through the development of academic and cultural exchanges, grants for translation and publication of Italian books, the promotion of Italian studies, the Institute contributes to the cultural cooperation between Italy and the US.  

About EXPO CHICAGO  

EXPO CHICAGO 2018, The International Exposition of Contemporary and Modern Art, is presented by Art Expositions, LLC at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall, hosting more than 135 leading International exhibitors presented alongside one of the highest quality platforms for global contemporary art and culture. Entering its seventh year as a leading international art fair, EXPO CHICAGO offers diverse programming including /Dialogues, IN/SITU, IN/SITU Outside, EXPO VIDEO, the Curatorial Forum, the Art Critics Forum, Special Exhibitions, EXPO Sound and OVERRIDE | A Billboard Project. In addition, EXPO CHICAGO continues to publish THE SEEN, Chicago's International Journal of Contemporary & Modern Art. Under the leadership of President and Director Tony Karman, EXPO CHICAGO draws upon the city’s rich history as a vibrant international cultural destination, while highlighting the region’s contemporary arts community and inspiring its collector base.  

The seventh edition will align with Art Design Chicago, and together with the Chicago Humanities Festival, Navy Pier and the Terra Foundation for American Art, will present the first-ever Hans Ulrich Obrist Marathon in the United States on Saturday, September 29.  

For more information on EXPO CHICAGO and EXPO ART WEEK (September 24–30, 2018) visit expochicago.com

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PARTICIPANT BIOS  

China Curator Bios  

Chen Lyusheng, Senior Research Fellow of the National Museum of China

Chen Lyusheng is a Senior Research Fellow of the National Museum of China. From Nov 2011 to Aug 2016, he was the deputy director of the National Museum of China. He is the recipient of many awards, including the first of Central Academy of Fine Arts Professor Zhang Anzhi Scholarship Found for Criticism in the History of Fine Arts, Second Prize of the Beijing Literary Association Award for Art Criticism (2001); the Annual Award for Theoretical Innovation issued in 2005 by the newspaper Journal of Literature and Art; a Silver Medal of the 2005 Annual National Competition of Newspaper Supplements; the final round of selection for The Sixteenth National News Award. In 2006, he was selected by the Chinese Ministry of Culture as an Outstanding Scholar, and won the fifth Award for Young Artists for Virtue and Artistic Achievements.

For the past thirty years, Chen Lusheng has been dedicated in research into art history, theory and criticism, while persisting in his creative works in fine arts. He has published more than 50 books (including compiled), which include The Art History of People’s Republic of China: 1949-1966; In the Name of ‘Art’; and Revolutionary Art: since the Yan’an Era 1942–2009, along with over hundreds of articles. He has had solo exhibitions, both in China and abroad, and has published seven catalogues of his paintings, five anthologies and three photography albums. Chen Lyusheng also serves as guest professor at School of Arts Peking University, Nanjing University of the Arts, Jishou University, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and Academy of Arts & Design Central University for Nationalities, China Foreign Affairs University and National Taiwan Normal University, special professor of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Social of City University of Macau.  

Dr. Li Xiangning, Curator, China Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale

Dr. Li Xiangning, is deputy dean and full professor in history, theory and criticism at Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning. He is a member of CICA (Comité International des Critiques d'Architecture), and Secretary General of China Architectural Society Architectural Criticism Committee. He has published widely on contemporary Chinese architecture and urbanism in international architectural magazines including Architectural Review, A+U, Architectural Record, Arquitectura Viva, Space, Domus, and Volume. He has taught as a visiting scholar at MIT, and has served as the UFI Fellow at MAK Center of Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, and Erasmus Mundus visiting professor at TU Darmstadt, and has held positions and lectured at UCLA, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Southern California, University of Florence and the Canadian Center for Architecture. He is a Visiting Professor in Architecture at Harvard GSD.  

He is co-curator of 2011 Chendu Biennale, 2011 Shenzhen Biennale, academic director and curator of 2013 Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale, curator of Shanghai Westbund 2013 Biennale, and curator for 2015 and 2017 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season. He has been working with international museums and institutes, including Milan Triennale and Goethe Institute, curating exhibitions. He serves as director for 2017 Busan Architectural Culture Festival (Korea). He recently curated the Chinese Pavilion at 2018 Venice Biennale. His books include The Real and the Imagined: A Study of Value in Contemporary Urban Theory (2009), Updating China: Projects for a Sustainable Future (2010), Made in Shanghai (2014), Shanghai Regeneration (2017) and Towards a Critical Pragmatism (2018).  

France Curator Bios  

Alice Motard, Chief Curator, CAPC Bordeaux

Alice Motard is Chief Curator at CAPC musée d’art contemporain in Bordeaux, where among others she organized a survey of the 1970s independent publishing house Beau Geste Press. Prior to this position, she worked as Deputy Director and Exhibitions Organiser of Raven Row in London from 2008 to 2013, where she curated the group exhibition Unto This Last (2010) and co-curated The Stuff That Matters (2012)—the first exhibition of the collection of historic textiles assembled by Seth Siegelaub—and the first posthumous retrospective of the work of the Czech artist Běla Kolářová (2013). From 2014 to 2016, she was Curator at Spike Island in Bristol, where she curated an off-site project by Gareth Moore and the first solo exhibitions in a public art gallery in the UK by Anna Franceschini, Isabelle Cornaro, Reto Pulfer, Michael Beutler, and Xavier Antin. She holds MAs in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art in London and in Art History from the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Freie Universität Berlin.  

Julie Boukobza, Independent Curator, Director of 89plus Europe, Africa, and India

French-born independent curator Boukobza helms the residency program of the art research project 89plus at the Lab of the Google Cultural Institute in Paris—under the auspices of Simon Castets and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. (She refers to the duo as “SCHUO”.) Young artists, architects, and graphic designers are invited to use the Google Art Project archives, work with technologies like 3D printers and interactive screens, and learn from Google engineers. As part of her role at 89plus, Boukobza contributes to development of larger exhibitions such as “CO-WORKERS—Network as Artists” at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, outlining artists’ relationships to “The Internet of Things” and “Ambient Intelligence,” while continuing independent projects like “Mon Horizontalité” at Galerie Untilthen, bringing together artists like Anthea Hamilton, Torbjørn Rødland, and Simone Fattal.  

Italy Curator Bios  

Alessandro Rabottini, Chief Curator, GAMeC - Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

Alessandro Rabottini is an art critic and curator who lives and works in London. Since 2017, he is the Artistic Director of miart – International Modern and Contemporary Art Fair, Milan. Rabottini curated many exhibitions in museums and galleries, among which, between 2014-2015 only, Robert Overby’s retrospective “Robert Overby (1935-1993)” at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva, which then travelled to GAMeC – Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo, Bergen Kunsthall in Bergen, and Le Consortium in Dijon; as well as the solo shows “Great Noir. Works 1955-1998” by John Latham and “Cold Cinema. Films, Videos and Works 1960-1999” by Gianfranco Baruchello at La Triennale, Milan. Following the latter, he co-edited Baruchello’s first monograph dedicated to his films and videos from the Sixties onwards (Gianfranco Baruchello: Archive of Moving Images (1960-2016) , Mousse Publishing). Previously, as Curator-at-Large at Museo MADRE in Naples, Rabottini curated the retrospectives by Walid Raad, Ettore Spalletti and Padraig Timoney. Moreover, as Curator-at-Large at GAMeC in Bergamo, he curated solo shows by International artists such as Mircea Cantor, Keren Cytter, Latifa Echakhch, Giuseppe Gabellone, Johannes Kahrs, David Maljkovic, Victor Man, Kris Martin, Pratchaya Phinthong, Pietro Roccasalva, Tim Rollins & K.O.S, Sterling Ruby, Tris Vonna-Michell, and Jordan Wolfson.  

Gianfranco Maraniello, Director, MART Museum of Trento/Rovereto

Gianfranco Maraniello is the Director of Mart, Museum of modern and contemporary art of Trento and Rovereto as well as the President of the AMACI (Association of Italian Museums of Contemporary Art). Formerly, he was the Editor of Flash Art magazine, Curator at Palazzo delle Papesse in Siena and Curator at MACRO museum in Rome. In 2005 he became Director of GAM in Bologna where he proceeded to inaugurate the new MAMbo museum in 2007. From 2013 until 2015, he oversaw the entire system of civic museums in Bologna (Istituzione Bologna Musei). He has curated more than 70 exhibitions in Italy and abroad (US, France, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Germany), including group shows and major artists retrospectives such as Robert Morris, Giuseppe Penone, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Rachel Whiteread and leading Chinese artists such as Cai Guo Qiang, Din Yi or Li Songsong. He has been the curator of 6th Shanghai Biennale (2006) and developed international coproduction such as Giorgio Morandi Retrospectives at Metropolitan Museum in New York. Author of many essays and editor of Art in Europe (1990-2000, Skira ed. 2001), Maraniello has regularly taught postgraduate courses for LUISS University in Rome and for Brera Art Academy in Milan. He is a member of the Board of Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan; member of the Scientific Committee of the Art Collection of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Farnesina); member of the Scientific Committee of the MADRE museum, Naples; and member of the Scientific Committee of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Milan.  

The Netherlands Curator Bios  

Paula van den Bosch, Curator of Contemporary Art, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht

Drs. Paula van den Bosch (1964) is a Dutch art historian, senior museum curator and writer. In 2000 the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, the Netherlands published her catalogue raisonné of the renowned ‘Visser Collection’ of international neo-avantgarde art. As an artist-oriented curator Van den Bosch organizes since 1998 international travelling solo shows at the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht with artists including: Luc Tuymans; Roman Signer; Joëlle Tuerlinckx; Peter Doig; Lily van der Stokker; Pawel Althamer; Monika Baer; Laura Owens; Mary Heilmann; Rebecca Morris. Recent and upcoming collaborations with artists/curators include: Carol Lu and Liu Ding; Ernst Caramelle; Dan Walsh and Paloma Varga Weisz. In 2005, Van den Bosch received the Dutch AICA Curatorial Award for Thomas Hirschhorn’s ‘Anschool’. She was again nominated in 2016 for an experimental collection display in collaboration with Dutch artist collective gerlach en koop. Van den Bosch is Associate Fellow at the Maastricht University and contributes yearly to the educational programs of the Academy of Fine Art and Van Eyck Postgraduate Academy Maastricht.  

CURATORIAL FORUM SESSION LEADERS BIOS  

Accessibility  

Dean Daderko, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Dean Daderko is the Curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where he has presented projects with Jérôme Bel, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Joan Jonas, Matt Keegan, Klara Lidén, César Martinez, MPA, Gina Pane, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Kay Rosen, Wu Tsang and Fred Moten, and Haegue Yang. Daderko has contributed to numerous CAMH catalogues, Art in America and Mousse magazines, and publications produced by the Studio Museum in Harlem and The Americas’ Society.  

Race, Representation, Social Justice  

Candice Hopkins, Independent Curator  

Candice Hopkins is a curator and writer originally from Whitehorse, Yukon and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is co-curator of the forthcoming SITE Santa Fe biennial, Casa Tomada, opening in August, 2018, as well as co-curator of the Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale opening May, 2019, which will feature the media work of Isuma Productions, a collective based in Igloolik and Montreal, Canada. She was a curator for documenta 14 in Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany. Her writing is published widely and recent essays include “Outlawed Social Life” for South as a State of Mind and “The Gilded Gaze: Wealth and Economies on the Colonial Frontier” for the documenta 14 Reader. She has lectured on contemporary art, sound, indigeneity, native economies, and vernacular architecture at such venues as Witte de With, WIELS, Tate Modern, Dak’Art Biennale, Artists Space, Tate Britain and the National Gallery of Canada. She is the recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art and the 2016 the Prix pour un essai critique sur l’art contemporain by the Foundation Prince Pierre de Monaco. Hopkins is a citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation.  

Labor Conditions  

Amy Sadao, Daniel W. Dietrich II Director, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia  

Appointed Director in September 2012, Amy Sadao has forged connections with institutions across the city, dramatically increased ICA’s budget and staffing, and directed an ambitious contemporary program extending equity to overlooked and underrepresented artists, ideas, and publics. Before assuming the directorship of ICA, Sadao served for ten years as Executive Director of Visual AIDS in New York City where she expanded the organization’s resources and public awareness of its mission utilizing contemporary art to provoke dialogue about HIV/AIDS and supporting HIV-positive artists.  

Sadao has been notably honored for her work by ArtTable’s 2014 New Leadership Award; Christine Quinn, Speaker of the New York City Council, as a Women in the Arts Leader; and knighted by the Imperial Court of New York, the city’s oldest drag house, for her work as an AIDS and art activist. She serves on the board of directors of Denniston Hill, an artist residency program, the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, and is a Director Emeritus of Visual AIDS. Sadao began her career as a curatorial intern at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Phillip Morris Branch. She holds an MA in comparative ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a BFA from the Cooper Union School of Art.