Top Art Curators in the world

We talked about the business of art. Now let us meet a few Art Curators who have uplifted the community to bring their best foot forward and make a difference in the world of art.

These curators are examples of how one person can shape the outlook and perception of society to let the collective voice be heard on a large platform.

1/ Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Independent curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is responsible for the raved-about 2012 documenta 13, which she chose to hold in Kabul, Alexandria, and Banff, as well as in Kassel. She has been the Senior Curator at P.S. 1 in New York, as well as the Director of the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art and GAM in Turin. She is the first woman to have reached #1 on Art Review’s “Power 100” list.

2/ Okwui Enwezor

Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) was the Director of Haus der Kunst in Munich. Born and raised in Nigeria, he moved to the United States in the ‘80s to study political science. However, when visiting art exhibitions, he quickly observed the immense absence of African artists, and starting critiquing these shows, even founding his own art magazine Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. He became known as a curator when, in 1996, he worked on “In/sight”, an exhibition of African photography at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo in New York City. 

3/ Catherine Morris

Catherine Morris is an important figure giving a much-needed voice to feminist art. Morris was responsible for a series of exhibitions entitled “A Year of Yes: Reimagining Feminism at the Brooklyn Museum” in 2016-2017. The exhibition series presented the history of feminism and feminist art, while also showcasing contemporary artistic practices and new thought leadership. She has co-curated many other shows with works by visionary female artists, and in her early days as an independent curator, she was responsible for shows presenting feminist practices of the ‘70s.

4/ Helen Molesworth

Chief Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA, Helen Molesworth co-curated Kerry James Marshall’s largest museum retrospective to date. Marshall’s powerful work, in which the protagonists are always black, boldly challenges the marginalization of African-Americans. Molesworth also received a lot of praise when she rehung the MoCA LA collection according to a revisionist, feminist perspective (“The Art of Our Time”).

5/ Hamza Walker

Hamza Walker is the Executive Director of LAXART. For 22 years, he was the Director of Education and Associate Curator at Chicago’s Renaissance Society, where he focused on bringing under-recognized artists and narratives to the public. At LAXART, Walker continues his inclusive mission of art, promoting artists that deserve more recognition in our cultural history and in the art world.