SITE SANTA FE ANNOUNCES SARAH LEWIS AND
DANIEL BELASCO AS CO-CURATORS FOR EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL EXHIBITION IN 2010
1606 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe,
NM 87501
SITE’s Biennial will examine the emergence of a new quality in video art: its voracious integration of other media. Video’s ability to serve as a transitional platform (a single work may move from drawing through video into installation, for example) strongly relates to the filmic concept of the “dissolve,” in which one shot fades into another. Lewis and Belasco’s exhibition, entitled The Dissolve, will offer insight into this fast-moving development and its historical precedents. Far more than a survey of recent video art with experimental forms, the Biennial will include paintings, installations and other works that meld into or slip out of video as well as new commissions from innovators of the medium. To address the spatial demands of this volatile form of video, the curators have commissioned renowned architect David Adjaye to reinterpret the iconic environments through which the moving image is experienced – from the nickelodeon to the arena-like interior of contemporary movie theaters to the internet.
SITE Santa Fe Phillips Director, Laura Steward, said, “In 14 short years, SITE has established an enviable reputation for providing an enthusiastic public with access to the best contemporary art in the world. Now with the selection of Sarah and Daniel, who assisted Robert Storr on our Fifth Biennial, I see the birth of a second generation, the legacy of SITE’s bright trajectory of curatorial talent. Working with the brilliant David Adjaye, this team is on track to create the quintessential video show of our time.”
SITE Santa Fe
Since its opening in 1995, SITE’s mission has been to bring the global contemporary art dialogue to the Southwest region of the U.S. SITE’s Biennial always attempts a paradigm shift in the field of visual arts and is well known for the innovation of its curators, and for showcasing great curators ahead of the rest of the art world. In fact, three of SITE’s curators have subsequently served as Directors of the Venice Biennale, and a fourth won a MacArthur “Genius” Award.
Biographies
Sarah Lewis is a writer, curator, and critic at Yale University School of Art and a doctoral candidate at Yale University in the Department of the History of Art. After receiving degrees from Harvard University and Oxford University, she held curatorial positions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in The Department of Photography and The Department of Painting and Sculpture, and is a guest curator for exhibitions at the Woodruff Arts Center and the Wadsworth Athenaeum. Sarah has published widely, writing for Art in America, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, The Venice Biennial, The Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Guggenheim Museum. A member of Obama’s Art Policy Committee, Sarah lives in New York and New Haven.
Daniel Belasco is a curator and art historian specializing in postwar and contemporary art and design. He is Henry J. Leir Assistant Curator at The Jewish Museum, New York, where his exhibition “Reinventing Ritual,” opens in September 2009 and will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco. Daniel has contributed texts to several contemporary art catalogues, including Robert Storr’s Fifth SITE Santa Fe Biennial. Daniel has published essays and reviews in numerous journals including Art in America, and ArtNews, and is currently completing a book on feminist consciousness in New York School art. He holds a PhD and MA from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and a BA from Amherst College and lives in Brooklyn.
SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501, 505.989.1199
Contact: Anne Wrinkle
Tel: 505.989.1199 x 22
wrinkle@sitesantafe.org
