NEW YORK, NY.- Creative Time announced Nato Thompson as Artistic Director. The announcement follows a succession of politically powerful works, from Trevor Paglens The Last Pictures to Kara Walkers A Subtlety to, most recently, Pedro Reyess sold-out political house of horrors, Doomocracy, and the annual Creative Time Summit, held for the first time in Washington, DC, last October, which have underscored Creative Times commitment to presenting important art for its times and engaging broad audiences that that transcend geographic, racial, and socioeconomic barriers.
The possibilities, and the need, for engaged public art have never been so great and so urgent, says Nato Thompson, Creative Time Artistic Director. Creative Time has long engaged with social and political issues on a global scale, and I look forward to continuing those efforts with our amazing team.
Creative Time also welcomed Elvira Dyangani Ose as Senior Curator, who joins the organization from Goldsmiths, University of London and the Thought Council at the Fondazione Prada. Before teaching at Goldsmiths, Dyangani Ose was Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, and curated the 2015 Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art.
Under the leadership of Creative Time Executive Director Katie Hollander, Thompson and Dyangani Ose will collaborate on a full slate of dynamic, engaging public art and programming, with an eye toward cultivating a broader global audience.
Its an honor to join Creative Time, says Elvira Dyangani Ose, Creative Time Senior Curator. The quality and impact of the work Creative Time has done, politically, historically, culturally, is incredible, and very much in line with my previous academic and curatorial passions. I look forward to working with Katie and Nato, bringing the challenging and socially relevant work that Creative Time is known for into public forums.
Politically engaged, challenging, and critically acclaimed, they represent Creative Times dedication to public art that pushes boundaries and engages a range of social, economic, and political issues. That commitment is echoed in the publication of Creative Time Reports, which now partners with The Guardian to bring commentary from artists on pressing issues to a global audience.
Creative Time is dedicated to the ability of artists voices to shape society, and the importance of free expression in public space, says Katie Hollander, Creative Time Executive Director. That is a vision both Nato and Elvira share, and I could not be more excited to be working with them both in its pursuit.
NATO THOMPSON, CREATIVE TIME ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Thompson joined Creative Time in January 2007. Since then, Thompson has organized such major Creative Time projects as The Creative Time Summit (20092016), Pedro Reyes Doomocracy (2016), Kara Walkers A Subtlety (2014), Living as Form (2011), Trevor Paglens The Last Pictures (2012), Paul Ramirez Jonass Key to the City (2010), Jeremy Dellers It is What it is (2009, with New Museum curators Laura Hoptman and Amy Mackie), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008), and Paul Chans Waiting for Godot in New Orleans (2007), among others. Previously, he worked as Curator at MASS MoCA, where he completed numerous large-scale exhibitions, including The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere (2004), with a catalogue distributed by MIT Press. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, Bookforum, Frieze, Artforum, Third Text, and Huffington Post among them. In 2005, he received the Art Journal Award for distinguished writing. For Independent Curators International, Thompson curated the exhibition Experimental Geography, and released his book Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century which was published in 2015 by Melville House Publishing. His latest book Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life was published in January 2017.
DYANGANI OSE, CREATIVE TIME SENIOR CURATOR
Dyangani Ose is Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, independent curator and member of the Thought Council at the Fondazione Prada, where she has curated three of its current exhibitions, Theaster Gatess True Value, Nástio Mosquitos T.T.T. Template Temples of Tenacity and Betye Saar: Uneasy Dancer. She was curator of the eighth edition of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA 2015) and Curator International Art at Tate Modern (2011 2014). Previously, Dyangani Ose served as curator at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno and the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, as Artistic Director of Rencontres Picha, Lubumbashi Biennial (2013), and as Guest Curator of the triennial SUD, Salon Urbain de Douala (2010).