Independent Curators International (ICI) supports the work of curators to help create stronger art communities through experimentation, collaboration, and international engagement. Curators are arts community leaders and organizers who champion artistic practice; build essential infrastructures and institutions; and generate public engagement with art. Our collaborative programs connect curators across generations, and across social, political and cultural borders. They form an international framework for sharing knowledge and resources — promoting cultural exchange, access to art, and public awareness for the curator’s role.
Michael Rooks
Michael Rooks joined the High Museum as Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art in January 2010. Besides his responsibilities at the High Museum, Rooks was appointed Commissioner and co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2010.
Prior to joining the High Museum, Mr. Rooks held curator positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts. At Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Rooks curated several group exhibitions and solo projects in addition to survey exhibitions of work by Roy Lichtenstein (1999) and H. C. Westermann (2001) for which he co-authored Westermann’s catalogue rasionné. As curator at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu Rooks curated more than 15 exhibitions including projects by Michael Lin, Paul Morrison, and Yoshitomo Nara.
Exhibitions at the High Museum of Art have included Workshopping: An American Model of Architectural Practice (U.S. Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2010), KAWS: DOWN TIME, and two historical survey exhibitions entitled Picasso to Warhol: 14 Modern Masters and Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913-2013. In conjunction with Fast Forward, Rooks commissioned major projects by Sarah Sze and Aaron Curry.
Photo by P. Seth Thompson
involved in:
Situation Comedy: Humor in Recent Art
In the past five to ten years, humor has turned up with increasing frequency in contemporary art, perhaps satisfying an urgent need among artists and audiences alike to reflect upon the absurdity of daily existence.
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