The MIT List Visual Arts Center is pleased to announce its selection of João Ribas as its new curator of exhibitions. Ribas, currently curator of the Drawing Center in New York, was selected from an extensive field of national and international candidates by a search committee comprised of Ute Meta Bauer, associate professor, Visual Arts Program, MIT Department of Architecture; Caroline A. Jones, professor, MIT History, Theory, and Criticism program; Jane Farver, director, MIT List Visual Arts Center; David Freilach, assistant director, MIT List Visual Arts Center; and Joan Jonas, artist, professor, Visual Arts Program, MIT Department of Architecture; and Leila Kinney, director of arts initiatives at MIT. Ribas will assume his curatorial position in mid-September.
"We are delighted that Mr. Ribas has consented to join the staff of the List Visual Arts Center," List Director Jane Farver said. "The search committee was extremely impressed with the high quality of his work at the Drawing Center and with his writing and editing experience. We are very much looking forward to welcoming him as a new staff member of the List Center and to working with him in the future."
The MIT List Visual Arts Center has a history of innovative, provocative and scholarly exhibitions and publications, and for supporting significant artists at an early stage of their careers, as well as for exhibiting important works by mid- and late-career artists. The center maintains and adds to a permanent collection of more than 1,800 pieces that includes dozens of publicly sited sculptures and hundreds of paintings, prints, photographs, drawings and sculptures located throughout campus buildings and offices. In addition the center administers and maintains a student loan art collection that makes works of art available to MIT students for their dorm or apartments on a yearly basis.
"The MIT List Visual Arts Center plays an indelible role in the field of contemporary art, as well as being an integral part of the broader intellectual mission of the university," Ribas said. "I am thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to this unique integrative and investigative program. The List continues to be a place where the most innovative and interdisciplinary work is allowed to flourish - where art and inquiry are brought together in a singular way. It's truly an honor to take on the challenge of continuing such a rigorous engagement with contemporary art."
Born in Portugual and currently based in New York, Ribas is the curator of more than 30 exhibitions and projects in the United States and abroad and a widely published critic. He has been curator at The Drawing Center in New York since 2007, where he organized exhibitions of the work of Frederick Kiesler, Alan Saret, Matt Mullican, Unica Zürn and Ree Morton, among others. He is the winner of a 2008 AICA (International Association of Art Critics, United States Section) Award for Best Exhibition in a Non-Profit Space. His writing on visual culture, literature, and film has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Sun, Art Review, Time Out, The Guardian Unlimited, and the Review of Contemporary Fiction. He is a former editor at Art Review and LTB Media, and has contributed essays to numerous exhibition catalogues and monographs.
The MIT List Visual Arts Center is located in the Wiesner Building, 20 Ames St., at the eastern edge of the MIT campus. It is in close proximity to Kendall Square, Memorial Drive and the Longfellow Bridge.
All exhibitions at the MIT List Visual Arts Center are free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible. Accommodations are provided by request. For more information, call 617-253-4680 or visit http://listart.mit.edu.
