Valerie Cassel Oliver

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Valerie Cassel Oliver
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin, Howard University
OccupationCurator
OrganizationVirginia Museum of Fine Arts

Valerie Cassel Oliver is curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). Previously she was senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) in Texas. Cassel's work is often focused on representation, inclusivity and highlighting artists of different social and cultural backgrounds.

Early life[edit]

Oliver grew up in Houston, then attended the University of Texas at Austin and graduate school at Howard University.[1] She also holds an EMBA degree from Columbia Business School.[2]

Career[edit]

Oliver was a program specialist in charge of administrating grants for National Endowment for the Arts from 1988 to 1995.[3] She also worked at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for five years directing the Visiting Artists Program.[4] In 2000, she was a co-curator of the Whitney Biennial.[5] Oliver joined CAMH in 2000 as associate curator and was promoted to full curator in 2006, then senior curator in 2010.[4] During that time Cassel Oliver helped curate a number of successful touring exhibits including Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art (2012) and Cinema Remixed and Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image (2008).[3][6] In June 2017, she joined the Virginia Museum of Fine Art as curator of modern and contemporary art,[7] Oliver's first show at the VMFA has been announced for January 2019, featuring painter Howardena Pindell and co-curated with Naomi Beckwith of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.[8]

She became editor-in-chief of the Benezit Dictionary of Artists in January 2020.[9]

Honors[edit]

In 2006, Oliver won a Getty Curatorial Research Fellowship.[10] In 2011, she won the David C. Driskell Prize from Atlanta's High Museum of Art,[11] a $25,000 prize recognizing contributions of an artist or scholar in the field of the art of the African diaspora.[12][13]

Exhibitions[edit]

  • The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse, VMFA, Richmond, Virginia, 2021[14][15]
  • Angel Otero: Everything and Nothing, CAMH, Houston, TX, 2016[16]
  • Right Here, Right Now: Houston, Volume 2, CAMH, Houston, TX, 2016[17]
  • Jennie C. Jones: Compilation, CAMH, Houston, TX, 2015[18]
  • Trenton Doyle Hancock: Skin and Bones, 20 Years of Drawing, 2014[19]
  • Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art, 2013[20][21][22]
  • Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft, 2010[10]
  • Benjamin Patterson: Born in the State of FLUX/us, 2010[23]
  • Cinema Remixed & Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image since 1970, 2007[10]
  • Black Light/White Noise, 2007
  • Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970, 2005[24]
  • Splat Boom Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art, 2003

References[edit]

  1. ^ Oliver, Valerie Cassel; Rowell, Charles Henry (2009). "Interview with Valerie Cassel Oliver". Callaloo. 32 (1): 57–64. doi:10.1353/cal.0.0340. JSTOR 27655019. S2CID 162893529.
  2. ^ Relations, Bard Public. "Valerie Cassel Oliver to Receive 2022 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from CCS Bard". www.bard.edu. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
  3. ^ a b Scher, Robin (June 5, 2017). "Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Appoints Valerie Cassel Oliver Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art". ARTnews. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Thomson, Steven (August 25, 2010). "New senior curator Valerie Cassel Oliver looks to add more edge to CAMH". CultureMap Houston. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  5. ^ Villarreal, Ignacio. "High Names Scholar Valerie Cassel Oliver as 2011 Recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize". ArtDaily. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  6. ^ "Valerie Cassel Oliver - CCL Class of 2009". Center for Curatorial Leadership. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  7. ^ "Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Appoints Valerie Cassel Oliver Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art a position previously held by John Ravenal.Valerie Cassel Oliver Named Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts". ArtForum. June 3, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2018.
  8. ^ "Valerie Cassel Oliver Named Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts". Art Forum. June 3, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  9. ^ Valerie Cassel Oliver. "Benezit Letter from the Editor". Oxford Art Online.
  10. ^ a b c Britt, Douglas (August 16, 2010). "CAMH names Valerie Cassel Oliver senior curator". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  11. ^ "2011 Prize Winner: Valerie Cassel Oliver". www.high.org. High Museum of Art. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  12. ^ "Driskell Prize". www.high.org. High Museum of Art. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  13. ^ Cochran, Rebecca Dimling (May 20, 2011). "Houston curator Valerie Cassel Oliver on Atlanta, Driskell Prize, "Atlanta Art Now"". ArtsATL. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  14. ^ "The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse - Exhibitions". September 6, 2021. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  15. ^ Cassel Oliver, Valerie (2021). The dirty south : contemporary art, material culture, and the sonic impulse. Regina N. Bradley, Charlie R. Braxton, Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, Kirsten Pai Buick, Jennifer Burris, Rhea L. Combs, Park McArthur, DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, Fred Moten, Anthony B. Pinn, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Roger Reeves, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Contemporary Arts Museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver. Richmond, Virginia. ISBN 978-1-934351-19-2. OCLC 1249798864.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  16. ^ Glentzer, Molly (December 16, 2016). "Artist Angel Otero's experimental layering creates works full of dimension". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  17. ^ Glentzer, Molly (August 26, 2016). "Show of force: CAMH spotlights hometown trio in solo retrospectives". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  18. ^ Sargent, Antwuan (January 10, 2016). "Sound Paintings Tell Stories of the Black Avant-Garde". Creators. Vice. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  19. ^ Glentzer, Molly (April 25, 2014). "Trenton Doyle Hancock's drawings on view at CAMH". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  20. ^ Smith, William S. (September 13, 2013). "Valerie Cassel Oliver talks Black Performance Art - Interviews". Art in America Magazine. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  21. ^ Lennard, Debra (November 25, 2013). "The Radical Boundaries of African-American Performance". Hyperallergic. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  22. ^ Nguyen, Stacey (June 18, 2015). "'Radical Presence' radiates spirit of contemporary black performance art". The Daily Californian. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  23. ^ Walls, Seth Colter (July 2, 2016). "Benjamin Patterson: the Fluxus artist who composed with ants". The Guardian. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  24. ^ Maus, Derek C.; Donahue, James J. (July 7, 2014). Post-Soul Satire: Black Identity after Civil Rights. Univ. Press of Mississippi. p. 8. ISBN 9781617039980.
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