NEW YORK.- At a ceremony at the Museum of Modern Art to be held on the evening of January 25, 2005, the International Association of Art Critics/USA will present its 2003-2004 AICA Awards to museums and galleries for excellence nationally in the conception and realization of exhibitions. MoMA chief curator John Elderfield will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which will be attended by museum curators, artists, and gallerists from around the country.

Each year, the United States section of the International Association of Art Critics invites its nearly 400 members to vote for the best exhibitions created during that season. The International Association of Art Critics/USA Awards are given in recognition of exceptional work by artists, curators, gallerists, critics, scholars, and cultural institutions. AICA is the only organization to formally recognize excellence in this cultural arena. The annual AICA Awards are the art-world equivalent to those given by the New York Film Critics Circle and the Drama Desk. This year’s Awards Committee includes AICA/USA Co-Presidents Eleanor Heartney and Carey Lovelace, and critic Lilly Wei.

In addition, a special award will be given this year to Robert Rosenblum for distinguished contribution in the field of art criticism.

The Association is pleased to announce the following winners of its 2003-2004 awards:

BEST MONOGRAPHIC MUSEUM SHOW NATIONALLY: Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective, Organized by UCLA Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Curated by Elizabeth A.T. Smith (MCA, Chicago) in association with Ann Philbin (UCLA Hammer Museum).

SECOND PLACE - Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration. Organized by the Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston. Curated by Terrie Sultan.

BEST THEMATIC MUSEUM SHOW NATIONALLY: Inverted Utopias: Avant-Garde Art in Latin America. Organized by the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Co-curated by Mari Carmen Ramirez and Hector Olea.

Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form, 1940s-70s. Organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Curated by Lynn Zelevansky.

SECOND PLACE - A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958 - 1968. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Curated by Ann Goldstein.

BEST MONOGRAPHIC MUSEUM SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY: Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective. Organized by the Schaulager Basel in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Co-curated by Gary Garrels and Klaus Biesenbach.

SECOND PLACE: Unrepentant Ego: The Self-Portraits of Lucas Samaras. Organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, curated by Marla Prather.

BEST THEMATIC MUSEUM SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY: FIRST PLACE: Schoenberg, Kandinsky, and the Blue Rider. Organized by the Jewish Museum, New York. Co-curated by Fred Wasserman and Esther da Costa Meyer.

SECOND PLACE - Between Past & Future: New Photography & Video from China. Organized by the International Center of Photography, New York and the David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago in collaboration with the Asia Society, New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Co-curated by Wu Hung and Christopher Phillips.

BEST SHOW IN A COMMERCIAL GALLERY IN NEW YORK: Vito Acconci: Diary of a Body 1969-1973. Barbara Gladstone Gallery.

SECOND PLACE - Gordon Matta-Clark: Bingo David Zwirner Gallery.

BEST SHOW IN A COMMERCIAL GALLERY NATIONALLY: FIRST PLACE - The Privilege of Solitude: Alfred Jensen and Forest Bess
Nielson Gallery, Boston. Curated by Edward Saywell.

SECOND PLACE - Terry Allen: Dugout I. L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA. Curated by Peter Goulds.

BEST SHOW IN AN ALTERNATIVE OR PUBLIC SPACE: FIRST PLACE
- Janet Cardiff: Her Long Black Hair. Presented by Public Art Fund in Central Park. Curated by Tom Ecclesa.

SECOND PLACE - corpus: Ann Hamilton. Organized by MASS MoCA. Curated by Laura Heon.

BEST ARCHITECTURE OR DESIGN SHOW: Ruhlmann: Genius of Art Deco. Organized and circulated by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Le Musée des Années 30, Boulogne-Billancourt. Co-curated by J. Stewart Johnson, Jared Goss and Rosalind Pepall.

SECOND PLACE - Marjetica Potrc: Urgent Architecture
Organized by the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art. Curated by Michael Rush.

BEST HISTORICAL SHOW: El Greco. Organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery, London. Curated by David Davies.

SECOND PLACE - Byzantium:Faith and Power (1261-1557). Organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curated by Helen C. Evans.

BEST EXHIBITION OF TIME BASED ART (VIDEO, FILM, PERFORMANCE OR SOUND): Joan Jonas: Five Works. Organized by the Queens Museum of Art. Curated by Valerie Smith.

SECOND PLACE- Rodney Graham. Organized by the 303 Gallery.

BEST EXHIBITION OF DIGITAL ART (WEB ART OR ART USING A COMPUTER): Robert Lazzarini. Organized by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Curated by John Ravenal.

DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO THE FIELD OF ART CRITICISM
Robert Rosenblum.

The International Association of Art Critics was founded in 1949 as a non-governmental affiliate of UNESCO, the Paris-based International Association of Art Critics (Association International des Critiques d’Art or AICA), which is comprised of 4,000 members in 74 national sections around the world. AICA members include distinguished critics, scholars, curators, and art historians. AICA aims to further and to protect the field of art criticism, to facilitate international communication among critics, to promote the values of art criticism as a discipline and emphasize its contribution to society, and to act on behalf of the physical preservation and moral defense of works of art. AICA/USA is the largest national section of the organization.