CURATOR AMANDA HUNT has returned to the West Coast to head education and public programming at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles where “Mastry,” Kerry James Marshall’s 35-year survey opened earlier this month. Hunt’s appointment was announced today and she began working at the museum on March 1.
Previously, Hunt had served as associate curator at the Studio Museum on Harlem since 2014. Her recent work there remains on view, including “Black Cowboy” featuring photographs by Deana Lawson, Ron Tarver, and Brad Trent, and “The Window and the Breaking of the Window,” presenting expressions of protest through art from the museum’s permanent collection, both through April 2. She also curated inHarlem, a series of site-specific public art installations in Harlem parks by Kevin Beasley, Simone Leigh, Kori Newkirk and Rudy Shepherd, on view through July 25, 2017.
Hunt also organized a number of other compelling exhibitions during her tenure, including “A Constellation,” connecting the work of mid- to late-20th century artists represented in the collection with a new generation of artists showing at the museum for the first time; “Lorraine O’Grady: Art Is…” revisiting images from the artist’s performance at the 1983 African American Day Parade in Harlem; and “Tenses: Artists in Residence 2015-16,” featuring EJ Hill, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, and Jordan Casteel, an accomplished young portrait painter.
In fall 2016, she was a visiting curator at MOCA Cleveland. Prior to joining the Studio Museum, Hunt was a curator at LAXART, a non-profit art space in Los Angeles, from 2011-2014. In Los Angeles, she helped produce Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival and Made in LA 2012. She also curated the Portland Biennial presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in Oregon. Hunt has held positions at a number of other institutions throughout the United State and at White Chapel Gallery in London.
WATCH Amanda Hunt discuss her curatorial experience at MOCA Cleveland
Hunt earned her master in curatorial practice from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She was among 10 Young Curators to Watch featured in Cultured Magazine last summer and named among 16 Female Curators Shaking Things Up in 2016 by artnet News.
MOCA CHIEF CURATOR Helen Molesworth announced Hunt’s appointment along with news that Hannah Katz is joining the museum as an assistant curator.
“Amanda Hunt and Anna Katz possess the best qualities of the emerging generation of museum professionals: they each share a keen commitment to history; to the pressing social causes of our current moment; a belief in the knowledge produced by artists; and a commitment to making all of the above available to the general public. We are thrilled to have them join the growing ranks at MOCA,” Molesworth said.
“They each share a keen commitment to history; to the pressing social causes of our current moment; a belief in the knowledge produced by artists; and a commitment to making all of the above available to the general public.” — Helen Molesworth
Marshall’s “Mastry” is on view through July 3 and there is a special program related to the exhibition next week. The museum is hosting a conversation between Marshall and Molesworth on March 30. CT
TOP IMAGE: Amanda Hunt. | Photo by Bryan Conley, Courtesy MOCA Los Angeles
Amanda Hunt speaks at MOCA Cleveland about her curatorial projects past and present. | Nov. 29, 2016
