Episode 134

Photo credit: Andar Sawyer

Ep.134 features Kimberli Gant, the Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She was previously the McKinnon Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA, and has also worked as the Mellon Doctoral Fellow at the Newark Museum, and Director of Exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA).

She has curated numerous exhibitions and gallery reinstallations including Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club (2022), Journey’s Across the Border: U.S. & Mexico (2021-22), Tuan Andrew Nguyen: The Boat People (2021), Brendan Fernandes: Bodily Forms (2020), and John Akomfrah: Tropikos (2019). Gant received her PhD in Art History from the University of Texas Austin (2017) and holds both a MA and BA in Art History from Columbia University (2009) and Pitzer College (2002).

Gant has published scholarly work in academic books, such as Anywhere But Here: Black Intellectuals in the Atlantic World and Beyond (2015), art publications such as NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Art Lies and African Arts, and exhibition catalogues for The Newark Museum, The Contemporary Austin, the Studio Museum of Harlem, MoCADA, Paris Photo, and the Centre for Contemporary Art Lagos.

Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence & the Mbari Club (2022) https://yalebooks.co.uk/page/detail/black-orpheus/?k=9780300263176

Chrysler Museum https://chrysler.org/exhibition/jacob-lawrence/

Brooklyn Museum https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/brooklyn-museum-hires-stephanie-sparling-williams-kimberli-gant-1234610507/

NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/arts/design/black-artists-african-art.html

University of Texas https://art.utexas.edu/news/dr-kimberli-gant-selected-2022-curatorial-fellow

ICI https://curatorsintl.org/about/collaborators/7950-kimberli-gant

Artnews https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/brooklyn-museum-hires-stephanie-sparling-williams-kimberli-gant-1234610507/

Brooklyn Eagle https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2022/12/07/brooklyn-museums-23-exhibition-schedule-leaps-across-artistic-categories/

C& https://contemporaryand.com/magazines/brooklyn-museum-appoints-stephanie-sparling-williams-and-kimberli-gant-as-curators/

Artadia https://artadia.org/news/join-us-for-art-and-dialogue-new-york-with-kimberli-gant/

Culture Type https://www.culturetype.com/2021/11/18/latest-news-in-black-art-curator-essence-harden-joins-caam-new-curatorial-hires-at-brooklyn-museum-arthur-jafa-guest-edited-i-d-magazine-michael-c-thorpe-and-jammie-holmes-gain-new-gallery-repres/

Africa Center https://www.theafricacenter.org/events/becoming-in-america-a-conversation-with-fitsum-shebeshe-and-kimberli-gant/