Curator of contemporary art hired to program exhibitions at The Warehouse Gallery and SUArt Galleries

Curator of contemporary art hired to program exhibitions at The Warehouse Gallery and SUArt GalleriesSeptember 10, 2008Elaine Quick

SUArt Galleries has announced that Anja Chavez has been hired to fill the new position of curator of contemporary art. Chavez, who will begin work on Sept. 22, is responsible for exhibitions and programs at The Warehouse Gallery in downtown Syracuse, and will work with SUArt Galleries on the Syracuse University main campus, to program international contemporary art exhibitions.

In 2007, The Warehouse Gallery merged with SUArt Galleries, opening opportunities for both venues to share resources and expand their capabilities. With this merger came the need for a curator who could work seamlessly with the extensive University Art Collection, foster collaborations with regional artists, curate exhibitions, and run a new contemporary art gallery. Chavez will help bring more contemporary exhibitions to the SUArt Galleries on the main campus at SU and guide The Warehouse Gallery, located in downtown Syracuse, in fulfilling its mission to present exhibitions and programs by artists whose work engages the community in a dialogue regarding the role the arts can play in illuminating critical issues of our life and times.

“We are very pleased to have Anja Chavez as our new curator of contemporary art,” says Jeffrey Hoone, executive director of the Coalition of Museum and Art Centers (CMAC), which oversees SUArt Galleries. “She brings a wealth of international experience and a proven track record of working with some of the most vital contemporary artists working today. I am confident that Anja will help us continue our efforts to make The Warehouse Gallery an important international venue for contemporary art.”

“I am looking forward to Ms. Chavez joining our staff,” says Domenic Iacono, director of SUArt Galleries. “Her expertise and experience will complement the skills and talents of our knowledgeable and capable staff. She will also bring a fresh perspective and new energy to our programming and exhibitions in contemporary art.”

“We are extremely fortunate to have Anja joining us,” says Sam Van Aken, associate professor in the Department of Art at SU and member of the search committee that recommended Chavez for the position. “Her extraordinary curatorial experience is certain to reinvigorate contemporary arts practices for our students, faculty and the whole of the Syracuse community.”

Chavez comes to Syracuse from the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, in Wellesley, Mass., where she served as curator of contemporary art and curator of exhibitions for the last five years. Some of her notable curatorial projects at the Davis Museum include Xu Bing’s “Any Opinion?” a site-specific installation for the museum’s lobby that received first prize for the best installation or single work of art in a museum from the New England chapter of the International Art Critics Association (AICA) in 2006-07. She was coordinating curator of the exhibition “On the Edge: Chinese Contemporary Artists Encounter the West” that also received first prize from the AICA in 2006-07 for Best Thematic Museum Show.

Her other important projects include curating the first U.S. exhibition by Russian artist Valery Koshlyakov, who represented Russia at the 2003 Venice Biennial, and curating site-specific installations by Aaron Noble, Ghada Amer, Lawrence Weiner and Steve McQueen, who was just selected to represent Britain at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

In addition to her position at the Davis Museum, she has held curatorial positions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Fitchburg Art Museum and Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany; and the Musee National d’Art Moderne in Paris.

Chavez studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Universite de Paris, Sorbonne IV in Paris. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Bonn in Germany.

For further information, contact Elaine Quick at The Warehouse Gallery, 443-6450 or equick@syr.edu.