CSM Research Fellow and Co-Director of Afterall Publishing Charles Esche has been announced as the recipient of the 2014 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence.
Awarded annually by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the award celebrates the individual achievements of a leading curator whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive of exhibition-making today.
The award ceremony will take place April 2, 2014 at 6:30pm in New York City.
This year, Esche, who is also the Director of the Van Abbemuseum (NL), will curate the 31st São Paulo Bienal with Galit Eilat, Pablo Lafuente (Reader at CSM), Nuria Enguita Mayo, and Oren Sagiv. He has co-curated a number of international contemporary art biennales and other events including: It Doesn’t have to be Beautiful Unless it’s Beautiful at National Gallery of Kosovo, Prishtinë, 2012; Strange and Close, CAPC, Bordeaux, 2011; An Idea for Living, U3 Slovene Triennale, Moderna Galerija, Ljubljana, 2011. In 2009 and 2007 he was co-curator with Khalil Rabah and Reem Fadda of the 2nd and 3rd RIWAQ Biennials, Ramallah, Palestine. In 2005 he curated the 9th International Istanbul Biennial with Vasif Kortun, November Paynter, and Esra Sarigedik ; and in 2002 the 4th Gwangju Biennale, Republic of Korea with Hou Hanru and Song Wan Kyung. In 2000, he curated Intelligence: Tate Triennial at Tate Britain, London with Virginia Button, and Amateur: Variable Research Initiatives at Kunstmuseum, Göteborg with Adam Szymczyk and Mark Kramer.