New curator joins Elmhurst Art Museum
A Chicago-based curator of contemporary art, Staci Boris, has been named chief curator at the Elmhurst Art Museum.
Boris served 12 years as a curator at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, where she organized a series of exhibitions, including the first U.S. retrospective of William Kentridge; the first survey of John Currin; and the first solo museum show of Sarah Sze.
She served as senior curator at Spertus Museum in Chicago from 2004 to 2009, where she curated the inaugural exhibition, “The New Authentics: Artists of the Post-Jewish Generation” and co-organized the exhibition “A Force for Change: African American Art.”
Most recently, Boris served as executive director of Art Chicago. She holds a master's degree in art history and museum studies from Boston University and a bachelor's in art history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Executive Director Phyllis O'Neill said officials saw Boris at work when she curated the newly installed exhibition in the Elmhurst museum's Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House.
“With Ms. Boris' curatorial vision, upcoming exhibitions will continue the museum's tradition of showing the finest emerging and mid-career artists in the area, while broadening and deepening visual content by introducing national and international artists,” O'Neill said. “Her interest in the interplay between art, design and architecture will resonate through future exhibitions and educational programs.”
Boris said she was attracted by the museum's “focus on contemporary art, the elegant gallery space, the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House, the dedicated board and resourceful staff, and the ambitious educational program ...”
“As a longtime supporter of local artists, I embrace (the museum's) commitment to presenting work by the best artists in the region and inviting artists from the area and beyond to engage and collaborate with EAM's growing audience. I'd like (the museum) to serve as an artistic and cultural hub, where something stimulating, challenging and participatory is always part of the museum experience.”
Boris already has demonstrated her curatorial approach with the new exhibition in Mies' McCormick House.
“Built in 1952, the McCormick House is the largest and most important work in EAM's collection and served as my introduction to this unique institution,” she said. “I plan to continue my initial work on the house — to rotate and augment presentations within its interior — and to explore its design and related concepts through exhibitions and educational programs in the museum's galleries, connecting the two primary components of EAM's complex.”
Following her work on the McCormick House, Boris is overseeing the museum's fall exhibition, “No Rules: Contemporary Clay,” which opens Sept. 7 at 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave.
“No Rules” concentrates on clay-based work of a nonfunctional nature and includes an international group of artists. Taking a variety of forms — from large- and small-scale sculpture to community-based walks to performance, video and photography — the work in this exhibition underscores artists' enduring relationship with clay and its adaptability to contemporary concerns.
Artists include Nikki Renee Anderson, Teri Frame, Michael Fujita, Chris Garofalo, Jeremy Hatch, Thomas Schmidt, Joseph Seigenthaler, Nicole Seisler & Liene Bosquê, Richard Shaw, Jay Strommen, Xavier Toubes, and Blake Jamison Williams.