Elms Curating the heck out of Phila!

Good news for long time friend of Bad at Sports, Anthony Elms, he is heading to Philadelphia to curate for the Institute of Contemporary Art!

We say Hell Yes!

Anthony’s departure will be a major loss to this community but our loss, is there gain and it is nice to know that the Philadelphia recognized what we had. We are sure that this is just the beginning of some fabulous things for our friend and regular contributor, Anthony.

Well done.

 

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 24, 2011

 

Photo: Erin Leland

 

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART APPOINTS

ANTHONY ELMS AS NEW CURATOR  

 

PHILADELPHIA, PA

The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, is pleased to

announce that Anthony Elms will be joining the ICA as Associate Curator. Anthony

has worked as an independent curator and writer, and he was Assistant Director

of Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago for six years. He edits and is

the curator of WhiteWalls, an alternative space for artists’ publication projects

founded in the 1970s. Anthony is just completing work as part of the organizational

team behind this year’s PERFORMA visual art performance biennial in New York.

 

“It is common to think of museums like the ICA as non-collecting, but that isn’t true,”

Anthony said. “They do not have art objects, but they collect histories and

experiences with the artists that have exhibited. In that sense, I could not be

happier to join a museum with the distinguished and energetic collection of the ICA.”

 

“I am looking forward to having Anthony’s vision, and his passion for publications,

enrich the work of our stellar curatorial team,” says Robert Chaney, Interim Director.

“We met Anthony when he co-curated the Sun Ra exhibition that ICA hosted,

organized by Hyde Park Art Center,” adds Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner. “This is a

wonderful outcome to our first collaboration,” adds Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner.

 

Anthony’s recent projects include Blast Counterblast; More Alive Than Those Who

Made Them; Glenn Ligon / A People on the Cover, and Unicorn Basking in the Light

of Three Glowing Suns. He was a co-curator of Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun

Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground 1954-1968, which enjoyed

enormous success when it traveled to ICA in 2009. His writings have appeared in

Afterall, Art Asia Pacific, Art Papers, Artforum, May Revue, Modern Painters, New

Art Examiner, and Time Out Chicago, and he has also written essays for numerous

catalogues. He received a BFA in painting from Michigan State University and an

MFA from the University of Chicago, and he continues to exhibit as an artist. In

addition, Anthony is an enthusiastic drummer and record collector. He is also

interested in ghosts.