Curator
A curator is an individual hired by a museum or gallery to oversee and care for a collection of artworks or artefacts.
Museums and galleries typically employ multiple curators responsible for acquiring, maintaining, and enhancing their collections. These curators also organise exhibitions featuring both items from the collection and loaned works, with the aim of enlightening, educating, and inspiring the public.
Over the last two decades, the role of a curator has undergone significant changes. There are now freelance or independent curators who operate without institutional affiliations and bring their unique, unconventional methods to exhibition curation. These curators are invited to curate exhibitions or propose their own ideas for a variety of venues, spanning from traditional gallery spaces to unconventional settings and even online platforms.
Swiss curator Harald Szeemann, who served as the director of the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2001, stands as a prominent example of an independent curator. Similarly, the artist and curator Matthew Higgs is recognized for his budget-friendly, do-it-yourself exhibitions, such as the unconventional art exhibition ‘Imprint’, which was distributed to people rather than being displayed in a traditional gallery space.
34 results found for "Curator"
El Anatsui
Pioneering Ghanaian artist El Anatsui makes monumental, ever-changing sculptures out of bottle caps and rubbish. His sublime artworks have made him an international sensation and earned him a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 56th Venice Biennale.
Actual Size: Explained
Ed Ruscha has spent his life toying with everyday words and objects – from roadside gas stations and billboards to the Hollywood sign. Featuring the SPAM logo and tin, Actual Size is one of his most iconic artworks. Here’s how a strange, satirical painting captured the essence of America.
The art movement that redefined Britain
What does it mean to be a British artist? The British Black Arts Movement introduced the world to a side of Britain that had been previously kept out of museums and galleries.
Norman Rosenthal on Anish Kapoor: Out of the Dark
Norman Rosenthal, guiding force behind the artist's first silkscreen print, reflects on his relationship with artworks by Anish Kapoor – shiny, dirty and sublime – since they first crossed paths in 1978.
Art in the Age of Femme Pleasure
As Janelle Monáe’s new album heralds the age of pleasure, femme visual artists are also imagining sexualities liberated from the male gaze.
Is racism the price we pay for representation?
Tschabalala Self’s sculpture was vandalised by racists who painted her skin white – symbolically erasing exactly what it was intended to represent.
Inside Gemma Rolls-Bentley's Collection
For Gemma Rolls-Bentley, collecting begins with understanding your own values and what you represent. As a curator and creative consultant, this is how she approaches her own collection as well as those she builds for others – guided by the idea that art should hold real meaning for those who spend time with it. The art that fills her South London home is a reflection of the queer family she is creating with her wife, poet and dementia specialist, Danielle Wilde.
Barry McGee
This iconic artist has been doing graffiti for over 40 years. World-class museums and galleries revere his work, but he’s never stopped tagging the streets.
The Changing Face of African Art
Raphael Dapaah is the founder of Dapaah Gallery – an art agency and consultancy specialising in art from Africa and the global diaspora. This Black History Month we sat down with him for an open conversation about his journey into the art world, and the triumphs and challenges facing Black artists today.
Lubaina Himid
Lubaina Himid is the Turner Prize winning artist, curator and professor championing Black British art. Here's the story of how she got there.
Hospital Rooms
A new partnership with Hospital Rooms will support their inspiring work advocating and enacting the ways in which art can impact mental health.
In conversation: Dmitri Cherniak at LACMA
After the acquisition of Ringers #962 into LACMA's collection, Generative artist Dmitri Cherniak and LACMA Curator Dhyandra Lawson discuss the artistry of systems, curating randomness, and the origins of Ringers.
Inner Visions 03
With a collection of hand-finished works, curator Larry Ossei-Mensah considers storytelling as provocation.
Gisela McDaniel & Gemma Rolls-Bentley
Ahead of a hand-finished debut collaboration, Gisela McDaniel explains the enduring and vital precedence of her sitters' stories.
Avant Arte in Accra
A series of studio visits in the Ghanaian capital.
Jenny Holzer: HURT EARTH
In a series of monumental light projections, HURT EARTH, art icon Jenny Holzer prompts urgent environmental action. Words from more than 40 global climate activists appear across the UK to coincide with COP26.
Curated by Aindrea Emelife: We Are History
Art historian, writer and curator Aindrea Emelife introduces hand-finished editions from Shannon Bono, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones and Sola Olulode.
Inner Visions 02
For the second instalment of Inner Visions, Larry Ossei-Mensah introduces a series of unprecedented works by New York-based artists Tau Lewis and Ludovic Nkoth.
In conversation: Larry Ossei-Mensah & Christian Luiten
Ahead of the first launch in our new Inner Visions series, we caught up with the project’s curator Larry Ossei-Mensah on Clubhouse in a conversation hosted by Avant Arte co-founder Christian Luiten.
Inner Visions 01
In his first collaboration with Avant Arte, critic and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah introduces three artists, Grace Lynne Haynes, Ferrari Sheppard and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Interview with Michael Kinsbergen
Michael started collecting contemporary art in 1998 as a way of escaping the structure and rhythm of his daily work. We speak to him about his journey through the art world.
Katherina Olschbaur
Katherina Olschbaur (she/her) was born in 1983 in Bregenz, Austria. Since 2017, she has lived and worked in Los Angeles, USA.
Elmgreen & Dragset
Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset were born in the 1960s in Denmark and Norway, and have worked as an artist duo since 1995.
Are you watching?
Gisela McDaniel redresses portraiture traditions with luminous paintings that foreground overlooked voices and provide sites for collective healing.Are you watching?, a self portrait, layers an archival pigment print with 4 silkscreen layers and raised varnish details. Drawing on techniques and materials used throughout the artist’s practice, each print will be embellished by hand with shells, beads and neon pink acrylic paint.
“When I’m doing self portraiture, it’s a moment to check in with myself. Sometimes I’m also able to talk about things that I wouldn’t with somebody else’s painting – I have a little more leeway to tell my own story.”Similarly to the artist’s original canvases, each print is accompanied by an audio work – in this case accessed via a QR code printed on the accompanying certificate of authenticity.Inner Visions
McDaniel’s prints will be released alongside hand-finished editions by Khari Turner and Patrick Quarm in the third instalment of curator Larry Ossei-Mensah’s series, Inner Visions.“For this launch, I was drawn to artists that push past a painting being ‘just a picture.’ The use of audio in Gisela’s work makes it impossible to overlook the depth and nuance of her sitters’ stories. Her edition is a self portrait, so in this case the story is her own.” - Larry Ossei-Mensah
Rest and Wellness
Memories ebb and flow through Khari Turner’s canvases, which he creates using water sourced from locations of personal and historic significance.Based on an original painting, Rest and Wellness partially abstracts a familiar moment of relaxation. In search of a “sandalwood and lavender candle kind of vibe,” each print has been hand-finished by the artist with sand, paint, strips of African mahogany, expressive charcoal strokes and wax pastel details in a variety of hues.Inner Visions
Turner’s prints will be released alongside hand-finished editions by Gisela McDaniel and Patrick Quarm in the third instalment of curator Larry Ossei-Mensah’s series, Inner Visions.“While others address specific subjects, Khari’s portraits are guided by energy, feeling and memory. I appreciate the way he follows his instinct and intuition, and in doing so asks the same of his audience.” - Larry Ossei-Mensah
Twilight (Yellow)
For Patrick Quarm, painting provides a means to interrogate the multifaceted identities of those – himself included – whose histories exist across multiple, overlapping contexts.Based on a painting from his personal collection, Twilight shows the artist’s nephew in surreal surroundings as a day draws to a close. Hybrid time, space and personhood entwined. Circular holes cut through the upper print reveal a blue underlayer, contrasting two horizontal strips that support the portrait’s figure – hand-finished in vivid blue paint. Twilight (Yellow) is released alongside a twin edition in blue.Inner Visions
Quarm’s prints will be released alongside hand-finished editions by Gisela McDaniel and Khari Turner in the third instalment of curator Larry Ossei-Mensah’s series, Inner Visions.“I'm drawn to the rigour with which Patrick addresses his subjects, and the layered depth of his collaged canvases. It’s exciting to see these layers translated into edition form.” - Larry Ossei-Mensah
Twilight (Blue)
For Patrick Quarm, painting provides a means to interrogate the multifaceted identities of those – himself included – whose histories exist across multiple, overlapping contexts.Based on a painting from his personal collection, Twilight shows the artist’s nephew in surreal surroundings as a day draws to a close. Hybrid time, space and personhood entwined. Circular holes cut through the upper print reveal a blue underlayer, complimenting two horizontal strips that support the portrait’s figure – hand-finished in vivid blue paint. Twilight (Blue) is released alongside a twin edition in yellow.Inner Visions
Quarm’s prints will be released alongside hand-finished editions by Gisela McDaniel and Khari Turner in the third instalment of curator Larry Ossei-Mensah’s series, Inner Visions.“I'm drawn to the rigour with which Patrick addresses his subjects, and the layered depth of his collaged canvases. It’s exciting to see these layers translated into edition form.” – Larry Ossei-Mensah
And All of My Friends Were There
In vibrant paintings inspired by vintage photographs, Esiri Erheriene-Essi captures intimate vignettes of domestic Black life.With 8 of 13 silkscreen layers individually hand-painted specially for the edition, the artist’s first ever print release draws focus to oft-overlooked everyday moments. These moments hold the essence of collective power and social change that Erheriene-Essi channels throughout her practice.“It’s the greatness of these people who are just living their lives.”International Women's Day
And All Of My Friends Were There is the fourth in a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
The Morning Light
Rich with symbolism, Arghavan Khosravi’s multilayered artworks draw upon personal experience to explore diasporic identity.During Covid-19 lockdown Khosravi began working with found objects, juxtaposing the flat plane of her canvases with intricate three-dimensional assemblage. Our debut collaboration explores this practice in edition form, combining an archival pigment print with a book, leather cord and air-brushed details. A motif found throughout the artist’s practice, in this case the vibrant red cord serves to steer the viewers eye and connect the artworks various layers and details.The work’s title nods to its seamless yellow gradients, and to the sense of quiet optimism emanating from it subject.International Women's Day
The Morning Light is the third in a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
Sweet Junkfood
In surreal snippets from her internal cinema Stickymonger captures the quiet beauty of daily life.Finished with neon and holographic details, Sweet Junkfood centres on one of the artist’s signature manga-esque characters in a candid moment of leisure. Dualities surface throughout her practice – self-care and guilty pleasure, reality and fantasy. In this instance, the aspirational pursuit of tennis and the illicit indulgence of fast food. Such juxtapositions, Stickymonger believes, “are what life is about.”International Women's Day
Sweet Junkfood is the second in a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
Stay here while I get a curse
Jessie Makinson paints carnivalesque visions of otherworldly pleasure, subverting tropes of ‘devious’ womanhood.Stay here while I get a curse, our debut collaboration, presents a surreal reimagining of a Tudor bedroom. Power and sensuality flow between the collection of characters, rendered in a dream-like dusky palette in various states of undress – “I am interested in clothes having no relation to modesty or function.”The 26-colour screenprint results from Makinson’s close collaboration with a team of artisan printers in London, realised at a large scale with intricate details and highlights to preserve the complexity of her original work.International Women's Day
Stay here while I get a curse is the first in a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
I beg your Garden
Super Future Kid invites viewers to join her in nostalgic, high-saturation fantasies.I beg your Garden sees the artist in an alternate reality, confronting a snail who has begun eating one of the flowers from her bouquet. Populated with plants, animals, rocks and mountains, the surrounding scene resists clear subtext in favour of an overriding atmosphere of calmness and optimism.Each print has been finished with an array of details applied in 26 individual silkscreen layers, including glitter, high gloss varnishes and a glow-in-the-dark ‘portal’ between the legs of the central figure.International Women's Day
I beg your Garden is the fifth in a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
Siblings
London-based painter Antonia Showering layers soft-edged recollections on canvas to create intimate landscapes of love.“No memory is singular. I think the more information you learn, the more every other memory you have stored is at peril of shifting and morphing.”Our debut edition release, Siblings, reprises an original painting centred on a pair of figures and realised in the artist’s distinctive, soothingly naturalistic palette.International Women's Day
Siblings concludes a series of 6 editions drawn together by Avant Arte Chief Curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley to coincide with International Women's Day. Read the journal.
Tinko, Tinko in pretty aunty-give-me-cake
Reconstructing identity through portraiture, Ekene Emeka-Maduka’s work emerges from her nuanced reflections on heritage, femininity, Blackness and culture.Maduka’s first Avant Arte release is conceived in collaboration with critic and curator Larry Ossei-Mensah. Each is finished with a hand-painted layer of oil and gesso, in which Ekene has added significant detail, depth and texture to the entirety of the surface — positioning the works in an exciting liminal space between edition and original.
Other words in the glossary
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Your questions, answered
We collaborate with artists to create both limited editions and works on paper.
A limited edition is a set number of similar or identical artworks. The size of the edition denotes the total number of artworks that will ever be made, underscoring their value.
Framing options vary for each piece and are listed on the individual artwork pages. Our standard glazing offer is a minimum 90% UV acrylic plexiglass, or you can upgrade to an anti reflective Optium museum plexiglass.
Yes, 100%. We work directly with our artists to create editions that accurately represent their body of work. Additionally, every artist personally reviews and approves their final editions.
Every artwork is signed or stamped, and individually numbered. You will also receive a stamped and numbered certificate of authenticity.
No—the copyright is not transferred to the purchaser of the edition.
All the ins and outs can be found on our orders and shipping page.
