June 8 | Prep for upcoming fairs gets well underway

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The upcoming edition of New York’s 2018 Armory Show looks set to focus on contemporary curatorial discourses, whilst PULSE Art Fair take on Katelijne De Backer as new director of the Miami fair.

New curatorial focus for 2018 Armory Show

Independent curator Jen Mergel and Gabriel Ritter, head of contemporary art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, have been brought on board for the 2018 Armory Show, running from March 8 through 11. They have been hired to curate special sections of the upcoming show. MCA Chicago curator Naomi Beckwith has also been hired to chair a new “curatorial leadership summit,” tackling issues within the field.

Mergel will be in charge of Platform, an area devoted to site-specific and large-scale artworks, whose 2016 edition was curated by the former director of the Andy Warhol Museum, Eric Shiner. Whilst Ritter will oversee the fair’s Focus section, last year managed by Jarrett Gregory, curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. Details via CultureType.

 

Jen Mergel, courtesy of The Armory Show | Gabriel Ritter, courtesy of MIA | Naomi Beckwith

 

 

New director at PULSE

Katelijne De Backer, recently appointed director of Art New York and Aqua Art Miami, will take to the reins of Pulse Contemporary Art Fair next month as the new director of the Miami-based fair. De Baker, who will also oversee Pulse360, the year-long art program related to the fair, previously served for more a decade as executive director of New York’s Armory Show.

Departing from the directorial position Helen Toomer will join the Pulse Advisory Commitee. The upcoming 13th edition of the fair is set for December 7 through 10. Details via Pulse Art Fair.

 

Katelijne De Backer © ArtDependence 

 

 

Katie Hollander steps down as Executive Director of Creative Time NYC

After nearly a decade serving as creative director of the public arts organization, Katie Hollander will be departing from Creative Time, with deputy director Alyssa Nitchun stepping in to serve as interim director, starting July 1. Creative Time’s board of trustees are in the process of forming a search committee to find a replacement.

During her time at Creative Time, Hollander’s direction saw the organisation embark on numerous ambitious projects including Sophie Calle’s Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery (2017), Pedro Reyes’s Doomocracy (2016) and Duke Riley’s Fly By Night (2016). She also played a vital role in the development of innovative partnerships such as Creative Time Reports and Creative Time Summit. Details via ARTNEWS.

 
Katie Hollander