Curators in Conversation: Pop to Present

2—3pm

event Details

Discover the curatorial vision behind Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in this special conversation between the VMFA’s Alexis Assam and Kenneth Brummel, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki co-ordinating curator.

This is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the curators about the artworks on display and how this exhibition’s inclusive narrative of recent American art took shape. Assam will also share fascinating insights about the legendary Richmond, Virginia, collectors Sydney and Frances Lewis, whose 1985 donation of post-World War II American art transformed the profile of the VMFA.

This event is FREE but bookings are recommended.

Date
Location
Auditorium
Cost
Free
Book now

Alexis Assam is the Regenia A Perry Assistant Curator of Global Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, where she is co-curating the forthcoming exhibition Pop to Present: American Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Assam joined the museum in late 2021 and organised the Richmond presentation of the travelling survey exhibition Whitfield Lovell: Passages (2023). Prior to the VMFA, she worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as the Constance E Clayton Curatorial Fellow (2019–21) where she supported the Philadelphia presentation of Senga Nengudi: Topologies (2021). Prior to her time at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Assam worked as the Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellow at the Saint Louis Art Museum (2018–19), where she co-curated The Shape of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection (2019). Assam holds an MA and a BA in art history from Florida State University.

Photo credit: Photo courtesy of Virginia Museum of Fine Art

Kenneth Brummel has over 15 years’ experience working at major art museums in Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States of America. In 2021–22, he was co-curator of Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, which in 2022 was named a top-10 international exhibition by The Wall Street Journal and the third-best exhibition in the world by The Washington Post. At Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, he is co-curator of The Robertson Gift: Paths through Modernity. A specialist of 19th and 20th-century international art, Brummel has mounted exhibitions on a range of modern artists, including Vilhelm Hammershøi, Joan Mitchell and Jean Paul Riopelle, Anthony Caro, and Andy Warhol. His collaborative research in the field of technical art history has been covered in major magazines and newspapers such as National Geographic, The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and Science. Brummel holds an MA in art history from The University of Chicago.

 

About the Virginia Museum of Fine Art

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States of America. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art, and to encourage the study of the arts. Through the Office of Statewide Partnerships Program, VMFA offers curated exhibitions, arts-related audiovisual programs, symposia, lectures, conferences, and workshops by visual and performing artists. In addition to presenting a wide array of special exhibitions, the museum provides visitors with the opportunity to experience a global collection of art that spans more than 6000 years.

www.VMFA.museum