Michelle Kuo

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Michelle Kuo
Born1977 or 1978 (age 45–46)
NationalityAmerican
EducationStanford University (BA), Harvard University (PhD)
Occupation(s)curator, writer, and art historian
OrganizationMuseum of Modern Art

Michelle Kuo (born 1977 or 1978)[1] is an American curator, writer, and art historian. Since 2018, Kuo has been a curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art. She was previously editor-in-chief of Artforum magazine starting in 2010.

Education[edit]

Kuo earned a BA from Stanford University,[2] majoring in art history and political science.[3] As a graduate student at Harvard University, she co-curated a show on the works of architect Le Corbusier at the university's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts on the occasion of the Carpenter Center's 40th anniversary in 2004.[4][5] From 2005 to 2007, Kuo was the Wyeth Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.[6]

Kuo returned to Harvard to earn a PhD in the history of art and architecture, where Yve-Alain Bois was her advisor. Her dissertation focused on the art group Experiments in Art and Technology;[3][7] she defended her dissertation in December 2017.[7]

Career[edit]

Kuo became senior editor of Artforum magazine in March 2008 while a PhD candidate at Harvard.[8] In April 2010, she became editor-in-chief, replacing Tim Griffin.[9] In this position, she edited issues on the subjects of political art, race, gender, and revolution.[10] Columbia Journalism Review credited Kuo for shifting the magazine towards an academic direction with issues focused on identity politics and the place of art in daily life.[9] In 2015, she acted as an advisor on the Salzburg Museum of Modern Art exhibition Experiments in Art and Technology.[4] Kuo resigned from her post at Artforum in October 2017, ending her tenure with the January 2018 issue, following reports of alleged sexual harassment by one of the magazine's publishers.[11][12] Artforum web editor David Velasco succeeded Kuo as editor-in-chief.[9]

In February 2018, Kuo was appointed the Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.[7][13] In early 2019, she organized the exhibition New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-First Century, which showcases "sprawling installations, canny video art or interactive sculptures" that were "made with technologies most of us already know and love (or hate)", as The New York Times art critic Martha Schwendener writes.[14] A review in The New Yorker called New Order "superb" and praised Kuo's "deep" knowledge of the subject and "agile approach".[15]

Working with New York painter Amy Sillman, Kuo organized the exhibition The Shape of Shape for the reopening of the museum in late 2019 following renovations. The exhibition showcased works chosen from the MoMA's holdings by Sillman and is an installment in the museum's "Artist's Choice" exhibition series, in which an invited artist organizes an exhibition with any works from its collection.[16][17] The New Yorker art editor Andrea K. Scott described the exhibition as an "exciting expression of the ethos of the newly renovated MOMA."[17]

Kuo served on the juries that awarded the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award to Otobong Nkanga in 2019[18] and to Guadalupe Maravilla in 2021.[19]

Kuo and Stuart Comer were curators of the 2023 exhibition "Signals: How Video Transformed the World," MoMA's largest exhibition of video art.[20]

Personal life[edit]

Kuo is Chinese American.[1] She recalls her uncle was the first artist whose work interested her, having grown up with his works in her home. Her uncle initially planned to study physics after emigrating from Taiwan, but ultimately became an artist and illustrator and moved to Nashville to create "everything from country music album covers to paintings addressing Chinese American identity."[21]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Azimi, Negar; Vazquez, Michael C. (Spring 2013). "Michelle Kuo". Bidoun. No. 28. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  2. ^ "Michelle Kuo Appointed Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA". Stanford University. February 28, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Keto, Elizabeth C. (October 18, 2016). "Arts Asks: Michelle Kuo". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  4. ^ a b "Michelle Kuo, who resigned Artforum post-Landesman, goes to MoMA". ArtReview. February 28, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  5. ^ Gewertz, Ken (April 8, 2004). "Architectural giant Le Corbusier honored in show". Harvard Gazette. Archived from the original on July 11, 2016. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  6. ^ "Michelle Kuo to Succeed Tim Griffin as Editor in Chief of Artforum". Artforum. May 6, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Sheets, Hilarie M. (February 28, 2018). "Former Artforum Editor Is Named a Curator at MoMA". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 28, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  8. ^ Neyfakh, Leon (April 30, 2010). "Artforum Editor Tim Griffin Steps Down, Will Be Succeeded By Michelle Kuo". The New York Observer. Archived from the original on May 4, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  9. ^ a b c Chayka, Kyle (August 6, 2019). "The Decisive Moment". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  10. ^ Freeman, Nate (October 25, 2017). "Artforum Editor-in-Chief Michelle Kuo Resigns, David Velasco to Succeed Her [Updated]". ARTnews. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  11. ^ "Artforum editor-in-chief Michelle Kuo resigns". ArtReview. October 27, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  12. ^ Russeth, Andrew (October 26, 2017). "Artforum Editor-in-Chief Michelle Kuo on Why She Resigned". ARTnews. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  13. ^ Russeth, Andrew (February 28, 2018). "Former Artforum Editor Michelle Kuo Joins MoMA as Curator". ARTnews. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  14. ^ Schwendener, Martha (June 6, 2019). "Encountering the 'New Order' at MoMA". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  15. ^ Scott, Andrea K. "New Order: Art and Technology in the Twenty-first Century". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  16. ^ Smith, Roberta (October 17, 2019). "MoMA's Art Treasure, No Longer Buried". The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  17. ^ a b Scott, Andrea K. (November 12, 2019). "Reframing Modernism at the New MOMA". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
  18. ^ Maximilíano Durón (30 September 2019), Otobong Nkanga Wins $100,000 Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, One of the World’s Largest Art Prizes ARTnews.
  19. ^ Maximilíano Durón (5 October 2021), Guadalupe Maravilla Wins $100,000 Lise Wilhelmsen Award, One of the World’s Largest Art Prizes ARTnews.
  20. ^ Farago, Jason (July 6, 2023). "The Crossed 'Signals' of MoMA's Largest Ever Video Show". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  21. ^ "Michelle Kuo". MoMA Magazine. February 22, 2019. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
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