National Gallery of Art Senior Curator of Modern Art

Curators link artists and audiences. They translate the works of visionary painters, sculptors, filmmakers, photographers, and performers into presentations that move and inspire viewers. The power of curators resides in their ability to select which artistic people and projects they want to promote in museums, biennials, galleries, and independent exhibition spaces.

The following 16 curators, all anile 35 years or younger, are bringing fresh, millennial perspectives to a global roster of institutions and programs. Their motivations skew political: They aim to promote art by underrepresented figures and minorities. They value transdisciplinary practices and art that critiques the art world itself. Altogether, they're shaping the future of art around the world.

Installation view of "She Persists: A Century of Women Artists in New " at Gracie Mansion, 2019. © Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office. Courtesy of Michael Appleton.

In early 2019, Jessica Bell Brown filled Gracie Mansion—New York City'southward official mayoral residence—with piece of furniture, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs by female-identifying artists. The exhibition, "She Persists: A Century of Women Artists in New York," featured work past 44 artists and collectives with ties to the metropolis, created between 1919 and 2019. Visitors thrilled at viewing an

portrait mounted in a swank dining room, an eerie

sculpture at the home's entrance, and dolls made by the female parent of New York City's offset lady, Chirlane McCray.

Before the close of that triumphant project, in Oct 2019, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announced that it had hired Chocolate-brown. Yet the curator's presence is withal felt in New York: In early on March, she opened another exhibition at Gracie Mansion, titled "Catalyst: Art and Social Justice." This fourth dimension, Brown's roster includes esteemed artists like

,

, and

, as well as the lesser-known

, a young artist killed while biking in Bushwick last yr.

Brown previously worked at the Museum of Modern Fine art. While in residency at Recess, an experimental project space in Brooklyn, she co-founded the curatorial project Black Art Incubator. She said she views curation equally "an act of care towards ideas, stories, objects, and—nearly chiefly—artists." She espouses diverseness, artistic experimentation, and radical new interpretations of art history. Though she can't yet speak in depth nearly her upcoming projects at the BMA, Chocolate-brown gave Cocked a couple hints: "One is a solo presentation by an acclaimed American artist," while the second is "a major commission and interdisciplinary research project that focuses contemporary art as a lens onto history, ancestry, and cocky-determination."

Ross Little, however from My Body a Weapon every bit Yours Is, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Falte Projects.

Giulia Colletti, co-curator of the 19th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (opening later this twelvemonth in the Republic of San Marino), privileges skepticism over conviction in her work. Inspired by the philosophy of Theodor Adorno, Colletti said she believes that "art must recognize the uncertainty of any class of constituted knowledge." In other words, she's a fan of art that critiques the world and institutions around it.

In 2018, the European Cultural Foundation awarded Colletti a grant to enquiry the Armenian Revolution. Forth with a collaborator, creative person Ross Little, she focused on protest strategies.

Considering the thought of the "palimpsest," or something that bears traces of early piece of work (a manuscript page with writing half-erased, then written over, for example), Colletti is rethinking the layered subjectivities of European history. This is even more urgent in Colletti's home country of Italian republic, where, she said, the "colonial past has never been thoroughly revised."

Marguerite Humeau, installation view of "FOXP2" at Palais de Tokyo, 2016. Photo past André Morin. Courtesy of the artist and Palais de Tokyo.

Last April, the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art announced Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel as the main curator of its 2020 edition. The major honor followed a number of ambitious projects at Palais de Tokyo, where Lamarche-Vadel worked from 2012 to 2019. She curated 'southward first major solo show at the Paris museum in 2016, the aforementioned yr she organized "Menu Blanche to Tino Sehgal." She chosen that show the "biggest live art exhibition ever realized, with 400 performers inhabiting the empty 13,000-square-meter space over 12 weeks." Her 2018 presentation of 's work became the most attended exhibition in the museum's history.

The Riga biennial, like so many major global art events, is indefinitely postponed. Perhaps Lamarche-Vadel will find artistic means to think most recent developments and traumas. Afterward all, she said, she's "convinced that art and creation tin offer alternative perspectives in times of unprecedented upheavals." She believes artists are "guides for renewed ways of seeing, feeling, and sensing the world." When the art globe returns to its pre-quarantine state, Lamarche-Vadel volition be able to create the "moments of come across" between artworks and viewers that give significant to her piece of work.

Installation view of "Beat" at Para Site, Hong Kong, 2018. Courtesy of Para Site.

Qu Chang'southward curatorial work often examines migration, obsession, and togetherness. In "Adrift: He/She Comes From Shanghai" at OCAT Shenzhen in 2016, she incorporated multimedia piece of work by artists including

, Karel Koplimets, and

that considered the diverging promises and realities of migration. "Crush" (2018) at Hong Kong's hip Para Site space—where she has been on staff since 2016—explored the seedy and violent dimensions of romance. Last year at Para Site, Qu curated "Café do Brasil," inspired by the Hong Kong restaurant that was an of import meeting place for cultural folk in the 1960s and '70s. Qu hoped to reconsider that commonage spirit with works by artists hailing from Hong Kong and red china.

Visual art, she believes, has the power to generate…a more radical understanding of the world—and possibly to radical action itself.

In her upcoming projects, Qu said she will focus more specifically on the "art practices and sociohistorical context in Canton and Hong Kong, a region where I have grown my roots more than and more deeply." Though she is from mainland China, Qu'due south colleagues at Para Site have helped her empathize Hong Kong "in a larger colonial/post-colonial context."

Describing her curatorial philosophy, Qu said, "Similar writing and reading, I see curating as another means to antipodal, learn, and discern." Visual art, she believes, has the ability to generate new associations and imaginative new ideas in the viewer, which lead to a more than radical understanding of the globe—and peradventure to radical action itself.

Pia Camil, installation view at Clark Middle. © Pia Camil. Photograph past Fine art Evans. Courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo.

Robert Wiesenberger said he aims to present work by "emerging and global artists in an institution known for its historical, Euro-American focus." Towards that end, the curator plans to mountain 'due south get-go solo museum show, accompanied by her first monograph. The German-Iraqi artist focuses on the relationship betwixt humans and animals in her multimedia piece of work: She invents stories and dialogues, pairing anthropomorphized characters with human being concerns. (Wiesenberger, a former critic at the Yale School of Fine art, will teach a class on the animal in contemporary art at the Williams Higher graduate program this coming fall.)

The Clark Fine art Institute's exhibition "Lin May Saeed: Arrival of the Animals" will feature the artist's drawings, reliefs, and Styrofoam sculptures. Ultimately, according to Wiesenberger, the artist seeks "a new iconography of interspecies solidarity." The Clark provides an ideal venue, too, with its galleries on Stone Hill. "Ane can walk through the woods to go there—and may encounter existent critters along the mode," Wiesenberger said.

The curator recently opened another exhibition, "Pia Camil: Velo Revelo," featuring 's big-scale cloth works. A new, site-specific commission drapes a 50-foot-long curtain of nylon pantyhose beyond the exhibition hall. Wiesenberger noted that the works "look stunning in our spare architectural spaces," while the materials are "unexpected for the Clark."

Kevin Beasley, installation view of Movement 5: Ballroom at Projection Row Houses, 2017. Courtesy of Projection Row Houses.

Beginning in 2012, Ryan Dennis brought radical programming to Houston's Project Row Houses (PRH). The community exhibition and instruction space is located in the urban center's Third Ward, one of its oldest African American neighborhoods. In 2017, Dennis organized "Project Row Houses: Round 46: Black Women Artists for Black Lives Matter" with creative person

. A serial of affiliated installations invited dozens of participating artists to create their ain "joy and grief flags," view films and performances, and attend meetings about topics that influence Black lives in the United states of america. "It was important to have these artists get together and hold space for the amount of pain that was reverberating in the state due to police brutality," said Dennis.

At PRH, Dennis besides partnered with Houston-based collective

to mount a mobile, community radio station, circulate from a 1959 pink Cadillac Coupe de Ville. She's brought works by

, Dem Blackness Mamas Podcast, and Okwui Okpowasili to the site every bit well. "My curatorial goals are ever-evolving," said Dennis, noting that she e'er aims to "uplift artists of color" who engage ideas about social justice. She views her role as a "co-conspirator," alternately challenging and supporting artists.

Dennis volition make big moves in the coming months. She was recently appointed to lead the curatorial department at the Mississippi Museum of Fine art, a position she'll brainstorm this June. She'll also curate her final programme at Projection Row Houses, focusing on climate modify, and forth with Evan Garza, she's co-organizing the (at present-postponed) Texas Biennial.

Ruth Root, installation view at Carnegie Museum of Art, 2019. Photo by Bryan Conley. Courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Art.

The Carnegie Museum's Hannah Turpin rethinks art history through a queer lens. The curator said she's particularly motivated by artists who consider "issues of representation, the personal, and historical revisionism." For example, she'll mountain an upcoming solo exhibition of new work past photographer

. "Pérez'southward exercise is grounded inside a queer sensibility of connection to and validation of their subjects," said Turpin. For the prove, the artist will focus on "the presence of intimacy and individual decision within the context of sport."

Turpin previously worked as the collections assistant at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. She's organized forums on the paintings of

and on queer perspectives in portraiture. In the futurity, the curator said she hopes to keep working with themes and artists that illuminate gimmicky problems. She wants her work to catalyze individual experiences with fine art and "nurture challenging conversations."

Installation view of "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Blackness Power" at Brooklyn Museum, 2018-19. Photograph by Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum. Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum.

Ashley James, who worked as an banana curator of gimmicky art at the Brooklyn Museum from 2017 to 2019, recently began a new role at the Guggenheim in New York and became the establishment's commencement Black curator. What excites James about the curatorial field? "Gen Z; young people get it," she said. Her own curatorial work has taken a boundary-pushing, forward-looking approach. Her 2019 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, "Eric N. Mack: Lemme walk across the room," juxtaposed way and fine fine art.

draped dyed textiles of all shapes and sizes across the museum'south Groovy Hall. During i operation evening, Mack invited artists including singer MHYSA, poet April Freely, and experimental musicians Justin Allen and Devin Kenny to interact with his work.

James was too the lead curator for the Brooklyn Museum's iteration of the lauded 2018–19 bear witness "Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power." The exhibition brought Black artists including

,

,

,

, and the

into an interconnected spotlight.

Next upwards, James will co-curate a presentation of new work by

at the Brooklyn Museum subsequently this year. The show, she said, volition "take upwards questions of African diasporic (art) history and modernity, possession, desire, and power." Her first curatorial outing at the Guggenheim will be a collaboration with Katherine Brinson, organizing a solo presentation for the winner of the esteemed Hugo Boss Prize. The strong listing of finalists—

,

,

,

,

, and

—promises an intriguing bear witness, no matter who is the victor.

Speaking of her ain ambitions, James noted her admiration for curators similar Kellie Jones, "who write new fine art histories in their exhibition making."

Installation view of "Abortion is Normal Office two" at Arsenal Gimmicky Art, 2020. Photo by Coke O'Neal. Courtesy of Downtown for Democracy.

Equally a social justice curator, Jasmine Wahi has a progressive mandate spelled out in her championship: Her position's namesake Holly Block, a long-time manager of the Bronx Museum, was a major proponent of diversity and community engagement. When the institution marks its 50th anniversary in 2021, Wahi intends to embrace the milestone equally "an opportunity to look back at examples of erasure and propel those narratives towards the future." While she'southward unimposing almost specific programming, Wahi noted that her upcoming shows volition be "deeply rooted in the idea of invisibility/visibility." She believes that "creating visibility" is "a potential solution towards combating systemic oppression."

"Information technology sounds idealistic, and perhaps a little cliché, just I genuinely recall that art is a conduit for change."

Wahi previously worked as co-director of Newark's Project for Empty Infinite, which she founded in 2010. The Projection welcomed such innovative programming as an extended collaboration with Montreal'southward theater group The Other Theatre. Over the course of two years, their Etiquette for Lucid Dreaming presented multimedia work and performance inside and exterior Wahi'south Newark galleries. She also co-curated the historic "Abortion is Normal" project organized by Downtown for Republic earlier this year (at Galerie Eva Presenhuber and Arsenal Contemporary), which raised money for reproductive rights. Wahi has presented exhibitions outside the Usa, every bit well: In 2011, she organized "And the falchion passed through his neck" at Delhi'due south Latitude 28 Gallery, featuring Anjali Bhargava,

,

,

,

,

, and

.

Wahi's diverse projects are all motivated by what she calls "systemic social impact." She said, "It sounds idealistic, and perhaps a little cliché, simply I genuinely think that art is a conduit for alter."

Pascale Marthine Tayou, installation view of "Beautiful" at The Bass, 2017-xviii. Photo past Zachary Balber. Courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach.

From her post at The Bass in Miami Beach, Leilani Lynch makes it a priority to piece of work with artists from exterior of major art hubs. In 2018, she organized an exhibition of brightly colored, hard-edged abstractions and sculptural installations past local artist

. She's besides presented solo shows featuring the Ghent-based Cameroonian artist

. Later this year, she'll open "Hialeah Eléctrica – Metavector," which focuses on architecture, urban planning, and blueprint ideas of Cuban-American artists

and

. Together, they'll reconsider progress in Miami'south Hialeah neighborhood—a largely Hispanic area that's a hotspot for fabrication in the city.

Lynch said she hopes her projects "observe resonance with those who avidly follow art, also as those who may consider museums to exist unwelcoming spaces." Two of her forthcoming projects—with

and

—promise participatory elements to draw in audiences both devoted to contemporary art and new to its pleasures.

Installation view of "In the Open up or in Stealth" at Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, 2018. Photograph by Miquell Coll. Courtesy of Museu d'Fine art Contemporani de Barcelona.

Kabelo Malatsie describes her curatorial piece of work every bit a fantastical journeying. "I would similar to make projects that read as novels, opening up means of reading the earth," she said. She's excited to see "where this rabbit hole" of exhibition making volition take her.

In 2018, at Johannesburg's Wits Fine art Museum, Malatsie presented a solo exhibition of piece of work by photographer

. The bear witness included mostly black-and-white shots of Zionist churches throughout South Africa. The same year, Malatsie worked in Spain, participating in a collaborative curatorial program with

at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. The resulting prove, "In the Open up or in Stealth," featured over 20 international artists whose work loosely considered what the future might look like.

This yr, look out for Malatsie's project at the Yokohama Triennial, where she's once again working with Raqs Media Collective, and at the (indefinitely postponed) Art Dubai, where she'due south curating a special "Residents" department featuring African artists.

Faustin Linkyekula, yet from My Torso, My Archive, 2020. Courtesy of the artist and Tate Modern.

Every bit a curator of performance, Tamsin Hong said she oftentimes works with artists "who use their bodies equally agents for social, ecological, and political modify." On March 20th, she was planning to open the BMW Tate Alive Exhibition "Our Bodies, Our Archives," featuring over a week of performances past Faustin Linyekula, Okwui Okpokwasili, and Tanya Lukin Linklater. The works all heart on the idea that the body itself can be an archive—of memory, tradition, linguistic inheritance, knowledge, and protestation. Though Tate canceled the programme due to COVID-nineteen, interested audiences can withal watch a contribution past Linyekula online.

For the museum, Hong has also organized a display of fabric works by German artist

and a presentation by Bulgarian polymath

. Solakov—who works in drawing, painting, video, and installation—choreographed a performance, A Life (Black & White) (1998–nowadays), in which two participants continuously painted the walls of a gallery for a month.

Going forrad, in this uncertain time, Hong sees immense opportunities for performance art. Right now, she said, "in that location is great urgency for art centering on the body and building connection. Nosotros, the live fine art community, are using our collective creativity to ensure these thriving communities are sustained."

Isuma, installation view at the Canada Pavilion for the "58th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia," 2019. Photograph by Francesco Barasciutti. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada and Isuma Distribution International.

Asinnajaq's curatorial piece of work prioritizes sharing ethnic perspectives. The curator was born in Kuujjuaq, an Inuit village in Quebec. She said she'due south motivated to share her own perspective on "what information technology means to exist Inuk," an umbrella term for many ethnic Arctic populations, while supporting other artists and their own "personal voices."

Terminal twelvemonth, Asinnajaq co-curated a presentation by Isuma, an Inuit flick and product collective, for the Canadian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Over the by 3 decades, the group has made lauded movies that share stories of their people, often in their own Inuktitut language. In 2018, the artist and curator organized an exhibition of the late Elisapee Inukpuk's cozily bundled dolls at Concordia University'due south FOFA Gallery. Next up, Asinnajaq will contribute her own curatorial efforts to the inaugural exhibition at the Inuit Art Centre in Winnipeg, which is slated to open later this year.

Installation view of "Five Bhobh: Painting at the Stop of an Era" at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, 2018. Photo by Erika Bornman. Courtesy of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa.

Tandazani Dhlakama loves to see teenagers wandering around Zeitz MOCAA, taking selfies next to work past

,

,

, or

. This says they're seeing themselves reflected in contemporary civilization—which is a major goal for Dhlakama. Much of the world is all the same recovering from the wounds of segregation and racial hatred, she noted, and "for a long time, sure histories were muted, distorted, or almost erased." Part of her curatorial responsibleness, she believes, "is to examine and highlight some of these narratives." She wants to demystify the art infinite in a way that engages historically disadvantaged groups in a new way.

To that end, Dhlakama has presented work by dozens of regional artists. Her 2016 exhibition at Harare'due south Tsoko gallery, titled "Across the Body," showcased art by five local artists who address corporeal absence and presence. Her 2018 bear witness at Zeitz MOCAA "V Bhobh: Painting at the End of an Era" juxtaposed socially oriented piece of work by 29 Zimbabwean artists.

She wants to demystify the art space in a style that engages historically disadvantaged groups in a new mode.

Next upward, Dhlakama is excited about "Shooting Down Babylon," a traveling retrospective for revolutionary South African artist

, which will open after this yr at Zeitz MOCAA. The exhibition will explore Rose's aesthetic interests in both violence and healing. "For Rose, the trunk, often her ain body, is a site for protest, outrage, resistance, and pertinent soapbox," said Dhlakama. "It is a channel for the demonstration of exasperation, aggravation, disruption, and paradox."

Ligia Lewis, Water Will (in Melody), 2018, at Performance Space New York, 2019. Photo by Maria Baranova. Courtesy of the artist.

The Hammer Museum'southward beloved "Made in L.A." biennial is planned to open this summer with Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi—forth with Lauren Mackler and Myriam Ben Salah—at its curatorial helm. "Information technology'due south been a enervating and enriching procedure, with the three of us combing L.A. and conducting 300-plus studio visits," Onyewuenyi said. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown their programming into flux and forced them to button the biennial'due south beginning date (it was originally slated to open on June 7th).

Onyewuenyi said he enjoys working closely with a group of generally female-identifying artists who are "thinking critically and expansively virtually queer and feminist politics." In 2017, he organized "Sexual Fragments Absent" at Paddles, a nightlife venue in New York. All three artists involved in the one-night exhibition and performance—

, Shawné Michaelain Holloway, and

—explored the politics of BDSM.

Onyewuenyi is currently collaborating with master curator Connie Butler to bring an

functioning to the Hammer. Discussing what motivates him, Onyewuenyi said he keeps in mind an edict from his old mentor, Adrienne Edwards, while both were working at Performa. "I follow artists," he said.

Installation view of "The Exhaustion Project" in Forecast Festival, HKW Berlin, 2018. Photo by Laura Fiorio. Courtesy of Forecast .

Abhijan Toto said he believes that curating tin can "serve a shamanistic, even cannibalistic" function. Curating, to his mind, allows us "to recognize the uneven topographies of our worlds and produce situations where we might experience them as enchanted." His work has focused on environmental, geography, and the history of war.

For example, Toto's "Burnout Project" (2016–present) transforms bug of labor and ideas about worn-down bodies into imaginative new presentations. Toto has organized iterations of this project at HKW Berlin, as part of the Forecast Festival, and at the MMCA Seoul Changdong Residency. He's involved artists and collectives including

,

,

,

, Alisa Chunchue, the Rice Brewing Sisters Club, and Jang Su Mi.

Toto's "Wood Curriculum" is a roving curatorial platform that presents screenings, lectures, workshops, and writing that foreground the natural globe. For a 2019 show at Bangkok's WTF Gallery, titled "The Ghost War," Toto mounted video, print, and audio works by

and Sung Tieu that reconsider the ways that wars of the 20th century affected Thailand and Southeast Asia. In the coming months, Toto plans to present "In the Forest, Even the Air Breathes" at GAMeC in Bergamo, Italy—an outgrowth of this Forest Curriculum project, which won the 2019 Lorenzo Bonaldi prize.

Corrections: A previous version of this article stated that Jessica Bell-Brown worked for Recess. She really co-founded Black Fine art Incubator, a curatorial project formed through a residency at Recess, merely she did non work for Recess. Additionally, The Clark Art Found is in Williamstown, Massachusetts, not North Adams as originally stated.

Header and Thumbnail Image: Portrait of Leilani Lynch by BFA - Tiffany Sage. Courtesy of The Bass. Portrait of Ryan Dennis by Sidney Mori. Courtesy of Ryan Dennis. Portrait of Robert Wiesenberger by Tucker Bair. Courtesy of Clark Art Institute. Portrait of Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel past Kristine Madjare. Courtesy of Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art. Portrait of Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi past Ben Filo. Courtesy of Hammer Museum. Portrait of Asinnajaq by Pati Tyrell. Courtesy of Asinnajaq.

Portrait of Jessica Bell Brown past Michael Avedon for 65CPW. Courtesy of Baltimore Museum of Fine art. Portrait of Giulia Colletti. Courtesy of Giulia Colletti. Portrait of Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel by Kristine Madjare. Courtesy of Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art. Portrait of Qu Chang. Courtesy of Para Site. Portrait of Robert Wiesenberger by Tucker Bair. Courtesy of Clark Art Plant. Portrait of Ryan Dennis by Sidney Mori. Courtesy of Ryan Dennis. Portrait of Hannah Turpin by Bryan Conley. Courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Art. Portrait of Ashley James by Elle Pérez. Courtesy of Ashley James.Portrait of Jasmine Wahi. Courtesy of Jasmine Wahi. Portrait of Leilani Lynch. Courtesy of The Bass. Portrait of Kabelo Malatsie. Courtesy of Kabelo Malatsie. Portrait of Tamsin Hong. © Tamsin Hong. Courtesy of Tamsin Hong. Portrait of Asinnajaq by Pati Tyrell. Courtesy of Asinnajaq. Portrait of Tandazani Dhlakama by Richard Kilpert. Courtesy of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Fine art Africa. Portrait of Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi by Ben Filo. Courtesy of Hammer Museum.Portrait of Abhijan Toto by GR. Berlin. Courtesy of GR. Berlin.

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