ICI: Benefit Auction 2019 Curatorial Committee Picks

On the occasion of its 2019 Annual Benefit & Auction, Independent Curators International (ICI) has assembled the inaugural Benefit Auction Curatorial Committee, composed of Magali Arriola, Matthew Higgs, Barbara London, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Tumelo Mosaka, Paul Schimmel and Franklin Sirmans.

The Benefit Auction Curatorial Committee has provided advice and assistance in the creation of a unique Benefit Auction, adding their voices and endorsement to the generosity of artists who support ICI's mission and programs.

ICI: Benefit Auction 2019 Curatorial Committee Picks

1. Magali Arriola, Director, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico

Pablo Vargas Lugo is representing Mexico in the Mexican National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, curated by Arriola.

"Vargas Lugo's work has always put forth fortuitous and unlikely encounters. His interest in the ancient and the sacred, cartography and astronomy, secret societies and science fiction, has allowed him to displace the hierarchies and classifications that structure Western thought. His practice speculates about what happens when the left hand is unaware of what the right hand does, when numbers operate like letters, or when during the course of one day, time is fractured into arbitrary and indivisible units, reimagining thereby the rites and conventions that shape our cultural imaginary." - Magali Arriola

2. Mathew Higgs, Director and Chief Curator, White Columns, New York, NY

Neil Winokur's Andy Warhol was included in the ICI exhibition: Likeness: Portraits of Artists by other Artists (2004–2006), curated by Matthew Higgs.

3. Barbara London, Independent Curator

"Marina Rosenfeld is a New York-based composer, sound and visual artist who pushes the definition of what Contemporary art can be. Her drawing is related to her environmental sonic work Music Stand, featured in ICI’s touring exhibition, “Seeing Sound.” The drawing and installation are based on the concept that a site may involve a continuous and simultaneous recording and playback, an acoustic environment where a constant production and dispersal of data is subject to a series of delays and to the native distortion of the gallery and the viewer’s mind." - Barbara London

4. Larry Ossei-Mensah, Senior Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MoCAD), Detroit

5. Tumelo Mosaka, Independent Curator

"Paul Pfeiffer’s digitally manipulated photographs amplify the racial challenges confronting black athletes today. In the photographs, the black male body is isolated and frozen to question the bias and racism at the core of sports and entertainment business." - Tumelo Mosaka

"Nate Young’s works at first glance looks incomprehensible and inaccessible. Despite this formal look, Young offers complex forms and shapes excavated from familial histories. He is interested in reflecting on absence as a kind of potential space for re-imagination of our own histories." - Tumelo Mosaka

6. Paul Schimmel, Independent Curator

7. Franklin Sirmans, Director, Perez Art Museum in Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL