Karen Moss - art historian, curator, writer

Exhibition
by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective
July 20, 2022 – February 12, 2023
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

05 Aug 2022

by Alison Knowles: A Retrospective (1960-2022) is the most extensive exhibition of Knowles’s work to date, including 200+ objects from her still-active practice spanning multiple disciplines.

Exhibition & Artist Residency
Talking to Action
2017 | Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis

22 Oct 2017

I worked as Curatorial Consultant for Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy, Activism, an exhibition and publication investigating contemporary community-based socially-engaged art by artists from both Latin America and Los Angeles, part of PST LA/LA, a Getty initiative.

Exhibition & Public Art Project
CURRENT:LA Water
2016

09 Aug 2016

CURRENT:LA Water, the city’s inaugural public art biennial, included 15 site-specific installations along the LA River and other bodies of water. I was one of four curators for the project, working on projects by Mel Chin, Kori Newkirk, Rirkrit Tiranvanija, and Refik Anadol/Peggy Weil.

Exhibition & Public Program
FOCA@40
2015 | FOCA Curator’s Lab, LA | MOCA LA

23 Jul 2015

For the Fellows of Contemporary, Los Angeles’ 40th anniversary, I curated a video program for their Curators’ Lab and moderated a panel at MoCA with Connie Butler, chief curator, UCLA Hammer, Helen Molesworth, chief cuator, MoCA and Franklin Sirmans, dept. head/curator of contemporary art, LACMA.

Exhibition & Artist Residency
Lucy + Jorge Orta: Food-Water-Life
2014 | Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis

20 Jul 2015

In conjunction with the Lucy and Jorge Orta: Food-Water-Life exhibition and the Orta’s residency, I co-directed this community banquet for 100 with the food, table décor, plates, utensils, water purification sculpture, video documentation and a radio program made by Otis faculty and their students.

Exhibition
STATE OF MIND: NEW ART FROM CALIFORNIA CIRCA 1970
2012 | Orange County Museum of Art

25 Jul 2014

State of Mind: New Art from California Circa 1970, originally organized for the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Initiative, was the first major exhibition to investigate the development of conceptual art and related activities in the late 1960s and early 1970s in both northern and southern California.

Public Art Project
Portable Park IV
past-present-future
2012 | Santa Monica Place

24 Jul 2014

I worked with visiting artist Bonnie Sherk and Otis graduate students on re-imagining Sherk’s historic environmental art project Portable Parks I-III (1970) as a monumental-scale organic garden for the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival.

Exhibition
15 Minutes of Fame: Portraits from Ansel Adams to Andy Warhol
2010 | Orange County Museum of Art

18 Jul 2014

This exhibition explored early modern portraits, celebrity images from the 1930s to 1960s, photojournalistic street photography from the 1960s and contemporary portraiture.

Exhibition
Moving Image: Scan to Screen, Pixel to Projection
2010 | Orange County Museum of Art

16 Jul 2014

This exhibition presented developments in media art from 1970s single channel video to installations and digital projects by California and international artists in the Orange County Museum of Art collection.

Artists’ Residencies
2010 California Biennial Residencies
2010 | Orange County Museum of Art

12 Jul 2014

For the 2010 California Biennial, I worked on the early stages of residency projects with two LA-based collectives–– Finishing School and the Los Angeles Urban Rangers, and also did interviews with artists Rebecca Goldfarb, Will Rogan and John Zurier for the exhibition publication.

Exhibition
Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin and Florence Miller Pierce
2009 | Orange County Museum of Art

10 Jul 2014

Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce was the first exhibition to bring together the work of these four American women modernists.

Exhibition & Performances
Disorderly Conduct: Recent Art in Tumultuous Times
2008 | Orange County Museum of Art

08 Jul 2014

Group exhibition with Pilar Albarracin, Karen Finley, Pearl C. Hsiung, Glenn Kaino, Mike Kelley, Martin Kersels, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Rodney McMillian and Robin Rhode whose work addressed post-9/11 issues.

Artists’ Residencies
2008 California Biennial Artist Residencies, Projects and Performances
2008 | Orange County Museum of Art

06 Jul 2014

For this biennial, I organized artist residency projects by Julio Cesar Morales; Kara Tanaka and Jedediah Caesar, performance events by Mary Kelly and Shana Lutker and a performative sculpture by Ruben Ortiz-Torres.

Exhibition
Art Since the 1960s: California Experiments
2007 | Orange County Museum of Art

04 Jul 2014

Art Since the 1960s: California Experiments chronicled experimental and experiential art that emerged in the 1960s through the 1990s including pop art, conceptualism, assemblage, video and performance art, installation art and neo-conceptual practices.

Exhibition
Imaging and Imagining California
2007 | Orange County Museum of Art

02 Jul 2014

Imaging and Imagining California, from the Collection Histories/Collective Memories series, explored five different themes: California Modern, The Built Environment; Light, Space and Technology, California Domestic and Simulated Landscapes.

Exhibition
California Modern
2006 | Orange County Museum of Art

30 Jun 2014

California Modern, part of the Collection Histories/Collective Memories series, presented painting from the early 20th century to mid-century modernism, highlighted important exhibitions from the 1960s and 1970s and showcased contemporary acquisitions.

Exhibition & Artists’ Residencies
2006 California Biennial
2006 | Orange County Museum of Art

28 Jun 2014

This biennial that I co-curated with Elizabeth Armstrong and Rita Gonzalez included installations, sculpture, paintings, wall drawings, photographs, film and video by more than 30 artists and collaborative groups with several residency projects.

Exhibition
Topographies
2004 | SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE

26 Jun 2014

Topographies featured twenty-two artists from California an interest in mapping, cartography and marking sites. Sponsored by the Fellows of Contemporary Art from when I received a curator's award.

Exhibition
James Siena: drawings and paintings
2003 | San Francisco Art Institute

24 Jun 2014

This first survey of James Siena’s intricate abstractions since 1991, this exhibition included enamel paintings on aluminum, works on paper and two new site-specific, commissioned wall drawings executed with assistance from SFAI students.

Exhibition & Artist Residency
Alison Knowles : Secret Life of Ordinary Things
2003 | San Francisco Art Institute

23 Jun 2014

During her residency Knowles exhibited work in the gallery and collaborated with students on an installation project, a Fluxus event concert and Celebration Red, a red food banquet.

Exhibition & Artists’ Residencies
Touch: Relational Art from the 1990s to Now
2002 | San Francisco Art Institute

20 Jun 2014

Curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Touch included international artists whose work focused on social interaction. I co-organized residencies and performances and also co-taught a course related to the exhibition.

Exhibition
Lee Bul: Live Forever Part I
2001 | San Francisco Art Institute

18 Jun 2014

For her exhibition at SFAI, Lee Bul showed preparatory drawing and Styrofoam models and shot a new video for her series of three sports car karaoke pods, a collaborative project with the Fabric Workshop.

Exhibition
The World on Its Head: Contemporary Art from Belgium
2000 | San Francisco Art Institute

14 Jun 2014

Interdisciplinary work by nine Belgian artists Christine Clinckx, Carl De Keyzer, Wil Delvoye, Honore D’O, Jan Fabre, Ann Veronica Janssens, Mark Luyten, Anne-Mie Van Kerkhoven and Angel Vergara.

Exhibition
Sharon Lockhart + Kelly Nipper: Two Artists in Three Takes
2000 | San Francisco Art Institute

12 Jun 2014

Lockhart and Nipper, each represented by three bodies of work in photography and video, share aesthetic sensibilities and a desire to choreograph their subjects.

Artists’ Projects and Residencies
San Francisco Art Institute Artists Residencies and Exhibitions
2000 – 2004 | San Francisco Art Institute

10 Jun 2014

When I was SFAI Director of Exhibitions, I oversaw residencies with artists from Belgium, Cuba, France, Israel, Korea, Slovenia, and the United States, and curated many of their projects and exhibitions.

Exhibitions
The Anderson Window Gallery
1996-1998 | Walker Art Center

09 Jun 2014

I co-curated four exhibitions for the Window Gallery, a focus gallery in the Walker’s permanent collection, that explored specific artists, works of art and movements, inviting visitors to see the curatorial processes through its glass facade.

Exhibition & Artist Residency
Dorit Cypis
Backstage at the Walker:
An Archaeology of the Permanent Collection
1995-1996 | Walker Art Center

08 Jun 2014

I worked with Dorit Cypis on the encore presentation of this interactive environment at the Walker Art Center.

Exhibition
Collaborations: Inside the Armory/Out On the Street
1994 | ARMORY CENTER FOR THE ARTS, PASADENA

07 Jun 2014

This project included five collaborative artists’ teams who exhibited work inside the Armory and did site-specific projects on the streets of Pasadena.

Exhibition
Altered Egos: Making Art As An(other)
1994 | Santa Monica Museum of Art

05 Jun 2014

Included artists who produce work under assumed names or explore hidden identities in their art: Vernon Fisher, Maxine Henryson & Hunter Reynolds, Komar & Melamid, Charles LaBelle, Annabel Livermore, Theresa Pendlebury, Brian Tucker, Jan Tumlir & Kevin Sullivan, and Millie Wilson.

Exhibition
Kim Abeles | Encyclopedia Persona: A Fifteen Year Survey
1993 | Santa Monica Museum of Art

02 Jun 2014

This survey of Abeles work ranged from her kimonos, books, assemblages, shrines and boxes of the late 1970s to her large-scale installations of the 1980s-1990s. Sponsored by the Fellows of Contemporary Art from when I received a curator's award.

Artists’ Projects
Santa Monica Museum of Art Artists Project Series
1990 – 1998 | Santa Monica Museum of Art

30 May 2014

The Artists Projects Series of site-specific installation projects and performances, was Santa Monica Museum of Art’s signature program in the 1990s, showing both mid-career and emerging Los Angeles artists, many of whom have become well-recognized.

Artists’ Projects
Previews: Art in the Raw
1988-1989 | Santa Monica Museum of Art

05 May 2014

Art in the Raw was SMMOA’s inaugural site specific installation series with artists Michael Brewster, David Bunn, Meg Cranston, Mineko Grimmer/Carl Stone, Daniel J. Martinez, and May Sun with Peter Brosius and Tom Recchion.