Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative Panel Biographies 2007 Peter Marzio (panel chair) Director Museum of the Fine Arts, Houston, TX Darsie Alexander Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Baltimore Museum of Art, MD Doryun Chong Assistant Curator of Visual Arts Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN Tom Eccles Executive Director Center for Curatorial Studies Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY Hou Hanru Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs San Francisco Art Institute, CA Dr. Leslie King-Hammond Dean of Graduate Studies The Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore Betti-Sue Hertz Curator of Contemporary Art San Diego Museum of Art, CA Michael Monroe Executive Director Bellevue Art Museum, WA Wendy Weitman Independent Curator Panel Biographies Peter Marzio has served as Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) since 1982. During his 24 year tenure, attendance at the museum has increased from 300,000 to 2 million, membership from 7,000 to more than 40,000, the operating budget from $5 million to $50 million, the endowment from $25 million to $950 million, and the permanent collection from 20,000 works of art to 54,000. Marzio is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors, of which he served as President in 1988-89. He has been appointed to many advisory boards and committees. From 1997 to 2000, Marzio served as chairman of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. He also is a board member of The Wallace Foundation (New York). From 1978-1982, Marzio was Director and C.E.O. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.). Prior to his tenure at the Corcoran, he served as Curator of Prints and Chairman of the Department of Cultural History at the Smithsonian Institution (1969-78). Peter Marzio was born on Governor’s Island, New York City. He earned a B.A. from Juniata College in 1965 and subsequently graduated from the University of Chicago with an M.A. and a Ph.D. in 1966 and 1969, respectively. He has been awarded numerous scholarships and academic prizes, including a Senior Fulbright Research Fellowship to Rome in 1973-74. Return to Top Darsie Alexander is Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She began her curatorial career as a photography curator, working first as assistant curator at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and subsequently as associate curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art. While at MoMA she organized numerous exhibitions, including New Photography 14, Robert Cumming: The Clutter of Happenstance and Sets and Situations. In 2000, she moved to Baltimore, and began work on building the contemporary works on paper collection. In 2005, she organized the critically-acclaimed SlideShow, the first exhibition to explore the history of projected slides in post-1965 art. She is currently curating a retrospective of work by Austrian sculptor Franz West (2008). In addition to her exhibitions, Alexander has written on performance art, conceptualism, and new media. With Johns Hopkins University professor Michael Fried she has moderated an ongoing series of conversation with major figures in contemporary photography, including Jeff Wall and Tacita Dean. A graduate of Bates College (1988), she earned her M.A. in art history from Williams College (1991). She was on the 2006 advisory board for the Lucie Awards and participates regularly as a guest juror and portfolio reviewer in national exhibitions and events. Alexander is also a visiting critic for the M.F.A. program at the University of Pennsylvania. Return to Top Doryun Chong is the Assistant Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. At the Walker, he has co-curated House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective (2005), the first mid-career survey of the Paris-based Chinese artist and co-edited the first comprehensive monograph for him. Also at the Walker, he has organized group shows, including OPEN-ENDED (the art of engagement), and Ordinary Culture: Heikes/Helms/McMillian (both 2006) and has managed several residency projects with artists, including Rirkrit Tiravanija and Catherine Sullivan. He is currently at work on Brave New Worlds, a group exhibition of emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, and the first American retrospective of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo. Before joining the Walker, Chong worked at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, organized the Korean Pavilion at the 2001Venice Biennale, and co-curated Time After Time: Asia and Our Moment (2003), an exhibition of 14 artists from five Asian countries at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. He was also a co-curator of the Busan Biennale 2006 in Busan, South Korea. He studied art history, literature, and cultural anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and with the Departmental Citation for Distinguished Achievement in Art History. He has participated in a number of symposia and lectured in San Francisco, Vancouver, Seoul, and Tokyo. Return to Top Tom Eccles has been the Executive Director, Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, Bard College, since 2005, where he is responsible for the Center’s exhibitions program, strategic planning, and overall operations. He was formerly the Director and Curator (1997–2005) at the Public Art Fund, New York City. During his tenure at The Public Art Fund, Eccles presented more than 80 major exhibitions throughout the city, featuring artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Ilya Kabakov, Francis Alys, Mariko Mori, Julian Opie, Vik Muniz, Janet Cardiff, Martin Creed, Richard Long, and Barbara Kruger. He established an annual program of large-scale installations at Rockefeller Center, with major works by Jonathan Borofsky, Takashi Murakami, Nam June Paik, Louise Bourgeois, and Jeff Koons. He also curated and produced an urban park program, commissioning new works for Madison Square Park by Wim Delvoye, Dan Graham, Mark Dion, Tony Oursler and others and created a collaborative network for extending museum retrospectives and exhibitions in the public sphere, working with Robert Storr at the Museum of Modern Art on Tony Smith in the City, as well as for last three Whitney Biennials. Eccles curated a number of survey exhibitions of monumental sculpture including Roy Lichtenstein at City Hall; Willem de Kooning in the Park; Rodin at Rockefeller Center; and Keith Haring on Park. He writes and speaks frequently on art, and has lectured and taught at the University of Texas, Austin; the Art Institute of Chicago; Brown University; CUNY; Cooper Union; Cornell; NYU; Parsons; and Princeton. He holds an M.A. in philosophy and Italian from the University of Glasgow, and studied aesthetics, semiotics, and philosophy at the University of Bologna. Return to Top Hou Hanru, based in Paris, is the Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of Exhibition Studies and Museology at San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), as well as an independent curator and critic of international reputation and experience. He is the curator of the 10th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2007), titled Not Only Possible, But Also Necessary – Optimism in the Age of Global Wars, and is organizing the Chinese Pavilion for the 2007 Venice Biennale with a show of four female artists. He was also on the curatorial team for the 50th Venice Biennale (2003) for which he organized Z.O.U.-Zone of Urgency. He has curated over 50 exhibitions world-wide, including World Factory, and Sarkis, Alive and After for the Walter and McBean Galleries at SFAI; Laboratoire pour un Avenir Incertain (Laboratory for an Uncertain Future), Grand Palais, Paris, France, 2006; Never Go Out without My Dvcam, ICO Foundation, Madrid, 2006, Beyond, the 2nd Guangzhou Triennale, Guangzhou, China, 2004-2006; Go Inside in The 3rd Tirana Biennale, Tirana, Albania, 2005; Out Of Sight, De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam (2005), and Excessive, dense, speedy, complex, empty… but Humane – contemporary creative activities (digitally) facing the post-planning urban world; and Nuit Blanche 2004. Born in 1963 in China, he moved to Paris in the 1990s. He is an Advisor (professor) at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Visiting Professor at HISK, Hoger Instituut voor Shone Kunsten, Antwerp, Belgium, as well as a member of the Advisory Committee of De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, and French correspondent of Flash Art International He was also a member of Global Advisory Committee of the Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis. He has served on numerous panels and juries and has published and lectured internationally. His book On the Mid-Ground was published by Timezone 8 (edited by Yu Hsiao-Hwei), Beijing-Hong Kong, in 2002. Return to Top Leslie King-Hammond has been the Dean of Graduate Studies, The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Baltimore since 1976. At MICA, she administers over 200 students in 11 degree programs, and teaches in the Art History department. She is also an active artist, and curator. Some of her major exhibitions and publications include Celebrations: Myth and Ritual in African American Art (Studio Museum in Harlem, 1982); The Intuitive Eye (Maryland Art Place, 1985); Art as a Verb (The Maryland Institute College of Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Met Life Gallery, 1988); Black Printmakers and the WPA (Lehman Gallery of Art, New York, 1989); Masters, Mentors, and Makers, Artscape ’92 (The Maryland Institute College of Art Decker Gallery, 1992); Gumbo Ya Ya: An Anthology of Contemporary African American Women Artists (Midmarch Arts Press, 1995); Three Generations of African American Women Sculptors: A Study in Paradox; Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence (University of Washington Press, 2000); Sugar and Spice: The Art of Bettye Saar (Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2003); “Aminah Robinson: Aesthetic Realities/Artistic Vision” in The Art of Aminah Robinson (Columbus Museum of Art, 2003); and “Inner Being/Altered States: Painting the Life-Worlds of Beverly McIver’s Realities” in The Many Faces of Beverly McIver (40 Acres Gallery, 2004). In April, 2006 King-Hammond was appointed Chairperson of the Collections and Exhibits Committee at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture. Between 1985 and 1998, King-Hammond became the project director for Ford/Phillip Morris Fellowships for Artists of Color at MICA. She sits on juries, boards, organizations, and art commissions nationally, including the Executive Board, International Association of Art Critics (2000-2003). She was President, College Art Association (1996-1998); and is Vice-President, Jacob Lawrence Catalog Raisonne Project. She was born in the South Bronx and grew up in South Jamaica and Hollis-Queens, New York and was educated in the New York City public education system. She received her doctorate in Art History from The Johns Hopkins University in 1976. Return to Top Betti-Sue Hertz has been Curator of Contemporary Art at the San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) since 2000. Previously, she was the Director of Longwood Arts Project, an alternative space in the South Bronx. She has curated exhibitions including Beyond the Borders: Art By Recent Immigrants (1994) and co-curator (with Lydia Yee) of Urban Mythologies: The Bronx Represented Since the 1960s (1999), both for the Bronx Museum of the Arts. Recent major exhibitions at SDMA include Axis Mexico: Common Objects and Cosmopolitan Actions (2002); Past in Reverse: Contemporary Art of East Asia (2004); and Transmission: The Art of Matta and Gordon Matta-Clark (2006). She has also organized several editions of Contemporary Links, a series where contemporary artists respond to works in SDMA’s collection. Past participating artists include Regina Frank, Shahzia Sikander, Sandow Birk, and James Hyde. Hertz is currently developing an exhibition titled Animated Painting, which features an international roster of contemporary artists who use the strategies of animation, opening in Fall 2007. Return to Top Michael Monroe is Executive Director and Chief Curator of Bellevue Arts Museum in Washington, a position he has held since 2004. He has been involved with contemporary American craft for over 30 years. He was Executive Director of the American Craft Council, a 30,000 member national organization whose mission is to promote an understanding and appreciation of American craft. Before joining the ACC, Monroe was president of the Peter Joseph Gallery in New York City, where he organized exhibitions of leading American studio furniture artists. For 21 years, Monroe was associated with the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, where he served as curator from 1974 until 1986 and then curator-in-charge until 1995. From 1971 to 1974, Monroe directed the Fine Arts Gallery and taught design for the State University of New York, Oneonta. Monroe has served as juror for numerous national and international competitions, delivered lectures, and organized exhibitions focusing on themes and issues in contemporary American craft. Monroe received a M.F.A. in 1971 from Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and in 1967 graduated with a B.S. in art education from the University of Wisconsin. He also attended the American Academy of Art and the School of the Art Institute, both located in Chicago. Return to Top Wendy Weitman is an independent curator. Until March 2007, she was Curator in the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books at The Museum of Modern Art, New York where she had worked since 1980. At The Museum of Modern Art, she curated a number of important monographic exhibitions on twentieth century and contemporary artists, including the work of Kiki Smith, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt. Other recent exhibitions include Pop Impressions Europe/USA, the first major study of European and American printed art of this period. In the fall of 2006 she co-organized a major exhibition titled Eye on Europe, a critical and thematic survey of contemporary European prints, books, and multiples from 1960 to the present including more than 115 artists from 20 countries. These exhibitions were all accompanied by publications. Other recent publications include an extensive web site Artists of Brucke: Themes in German Expressionist Prints, the Museum’s first exhibition on the web. Weitman most recently organized Artistic Collaborations: 50 Years at Universal Limited Art Editions, currently on view at MoMA through May 21. In addition to her exhibitions, Weitman has taught and lectured widely on prints throughout the U.S. and Europe. She holds an M.A. from Cambridge University, England, and a B.A. from Yale University. Return to Top