16 Feb 2011
Artspace is pleased to announce the appointment of incoming directorCaterina Riva. She joins us after three years as the co-director and curator of FormContent, an innovative not for profit space she co-founded in East London.
“I am extremely excited by this new professional and personal challenge and very humbled by my appointment. I am looking forward to coming to New Zealand and to starting work at Artspace, where I will be presenting a lively programme responsive to the local community as well as projected towards international visibility and recognition”
Caterina Riva (b. 1980, Varese, Italy) is a curator who has been based in London since 2006. She studied in Italy and the UK where she received her MFA in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Over the past three years at FormContent, her artistic programme has focused on exploring curatorial and artistic strategies, combining exhibitition making, independent publishing and the production of events and performances, to critical acclaim.
Riva has worked on a number of notable exhibitions, including The young people visiting our ruins see nothing but a style at GAM, Turin, Italy (2009), The Responsive Subject at MuZee, Ostend, Belgium, (2010), and The Filmic Conventions at FormContent, London (2010). Previously she was the coordinator of the Advanced Course in Visual Arts for Fondazione Ratti in Como, Italy, from 2004 to 2008 working alongside young international artists and distinguished visiting professors such as Alfredo Jaar, Marjetica Potrc, Joan Jonas and Yona Friedman.
She was an international delegate for the Edinburgh International Art Festival (2009), participated to the 6th Berlin Biennale’s curatorial workshop (2010), and was curator in residence at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia (2010). Riva has contributed as a writer to a number of artists books and publications, and to magazines such as Flash Art (IT), Kunstbulletin (CH), Un Magazine (AUS), Catalogue (FRA), Mousse (IT) and Kaleidoscope (IT).
Artspace Chair William Somerville says "We are delighted to appoint Caterina Riva, who stood out within a highly qualified and talented field of applicants as the best person to lead Artspace for the next three years. We were impressed by the intelligence and sophistication of her curatorial vision, and her proven ability through her highly regarded contributions to FormContent. Her curatorial perspectives align well with Artspace's role as an international contemporary art space whose project-centred programme contributes greatly to sustaining and developing contemporary art practice in New Zealand."
Artspace farewells Emma Bugden, our current Director, who is leaving in March to take up the position of Senior curator at the Dowse, Art Museum, Wellington.
For more information please contact Annie Bradley on +64 9 3034965 or email media@artspace.org.nz
ARTSPACE receives major funding from Creative New Zealand
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