Art Prize Jury 2018
We are delighted to present the Jury for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2018. The panel comprised of influential art figures, including curators, directors and artists whose expertise spans all media.
Amira Gad
Exhibitions Curator at the Serpentine Galleries
Amira Gad is Exhibitions Curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London, where she has curated exhibitions of works by Arthur Jafa (2017), Zaha Hadid (2016), Helen Marten (2016), Jimmie Durham (2015) and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s 2015 show that received the Sky Arts Award for visual arts. She is a regular contributor to artists catalogues and has edited a number of books on contemporary art including Character is Fate: Mondrian’s Horoscopes, a publication that received the Dutch Best Book Design Award. Gad is also Commissioning Editor for Ibraaz, an online platform dedicated to culture in the Middle East and North Africa.
Ayo Adeyinka
Director of TAFETA
Ayo Adeyinka is a London-based art dealer who founded TAFETA in 2005. TAFETA was re-constituted as a private art dealership specializing in 20th century and Contemporary African Art in 2009. Located in Fitzrovia, London, TAFETA remains the leading purveyors of some of the most important 20th century artists of African extraction (Ben Enwonwu MBE, Ablade Glover, Susanne Wenger, Muraina Oyelami, Gebre K. Desta et al.) With a previous background in Financial Services, Adeyinka advises and works on behalf of a number of important private and corporate collections of Modern and Contemporary African Art.
Cherie Federico
Co-founder & Managing Director of Aesthetica
Cherie Federico is the Editor of Aesthetica Magazine and the Director of the Aesthetica Art Prize. Originally from New York, Cherie moved to the UK in 2002 to study for her Masters Degree and since then has developed Aesthetica into an international brand alongside the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival and the Creative Writing Award. Cherie is delighted to be judging the 11th edition of the Aesthetica Art Prize, and is passionate about artists who push boundaries and create innovative works; those that inspire discussion, surrounding form or content, and speak about the world in which we live. Click here to view a film about the latest Prize.
Darren Pih
Exhibitions and Displays Curator, Tate Liverpool
Darren Pih has been part of the exhibitions team at Tate Liverpool since 2006. His curated exhibitions include Yves Klein: Theatre of the Void (2016-2017), touring to BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels), Transmitting Andy Warhol and Gretchen Bender (2014-2015), Glam! The Performance of Style (2013-2014), touring to Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz); René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle (2011-2012, touring to the Albertina, Vienna). Darren has published numerous essays for exhibition catalogues and online, and is part of a small team curating the rolling programme of Tate collection displays.
Laurence Sillars
Head of Exhibitions, Henry Moore Institute
Laurence Sillars has recently been appointed as Head of Exhibitions at the Henry Moore Institute. Previously, he was Chief Curator at BALTIC, Gateshead, and Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Tate Liverpool. Laurence has worked on a wide range of exhibitions and projects including solo shows by Omer Fast, Lorna Simpson and Jim Shaw. Laurence co-curated the first Turner Prize exhibition to be held outside of London in 2007 and then again at BALTIC in 2011. The Henry Moore Institute is a hub for sculpture, connecting a global network of artists and scholars. Part of the Henry Moore Foundation, an independent arts charity.
Mike Stubbs
Director, FACT
Mike Stubbs is the Director at Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool. He joined in 2007, just before Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year. FACT is an organisation at the cutting-edge of art and new media and is one of the jewels in the crown of Liverpool’s ongoing cultural renaissance. He previously was Head of Program for ACME (Australian Centre of Moving Image) and Melbourne and Senior Research Fellow, Dundee University. He has commissioned and produced over 350 exhibition programmes and is also a moving image artist who has been shown at Baltic, Tate, BBC and C4. He was awarded a Fleck Fellowship, Banff, 2002.
Reyahn King
Chief Executive, York Museums Trust
Chief Executive of York Museums Trust Reyahn King previously worked as the Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, Head of Exhibitions and Interpretation at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery and Head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands. York Museums Trust looks after several iconic historical and heritage sites in the city of York: York Castle Museum, the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, York St Mary’s and York Art Gallery. In her early career King was a Curator of Prints and Drawings at Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. She chaired the Jury for the John Moores Painting Prize in 2008 and 2010.
Steven Gartside
Curator, Holden Gallery
Dr Steven Gartside is the Curator at the Holden Gallery as well as Research Fellow at Manchester School of Art and runs the MA/MFA Contemporary Curating programme. Holden Gallery generates four shows per year; they often explore thematic ideas through the work of contemporary artists. Recent Holden Gallery exhibitions include Ruse: the art of deceiption,Glut: information, images and excess and From Slow to Stop. Working with artists such as David Batchelor, Olaf Breuning, Sophie Calle, Moyra Davey, Thomas Demand and Gillian Wearing. He also works with Eleanor Mulhearn on the collaborative Atopia Project.