A Local Approach

2000s 2010s Chicago Collection Curatorial

Chicago gallerist Monique Meloche commends the curatorial team's support for Chicago-based artists.

Well I think the 12 x 12 series, which is now Chicago Works, is super important and I love the fact that it's open to the whole curatorial staff, so anyone from a curatorial fellow up to the chief curator can throw their name in the hat and then everybody discusses it and you figure it out. So it's not just like one young curator picking young artists. But additionally, just in—I think in the economic shift starting in 2008, museums worldwide had to think a little differently about their finances.

And so I know that one of the things that I think the MCA does really well is curate from within its own collection. And then not only that, they do spotlight other local talent and invite them in. Like for instance when the Jim Nutt show happened, then they did an auxiliary show of their amazing holdings of like Hairy Who and other artists that Jim Nutt was a part of that world. And then they included younger artists who had been influenced by them.

Installation view, Seeing Is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, MCA Chicago, Jan 29–May 29, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Seeing Is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, MCA Chicago, Jan 29–May 29, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character, MCA Chicago, Jan 29–May 29, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

Installation view, Jim Nutt: Coming Into Character, MCA Chicago, Jan 29–May 29, 2011. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago.

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