Goldsmiths - University of London

Andrew Renton

I work as a writer and curator. I am interested in the different languages and registers that might be possible in response to the work of art. As a curator my recent concern has been with the ethical encounter with object, its physicality and context.

Academic qualifications

1981 – 1984 B.A. (Hons.), University of Nottingham

1985 – 1989 Ph.D., University of Reading

Teaching

2000 – 2002
Slade Curator, Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London.

1997 – 2000
Lecturer, Art History and Theoretical Studies, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

1997 – present
Visiting Lecturer, Bezalel Art Academy, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Bezalel is Israel’s oldest art school, founded in 1906, which until 1999 did not have a post-graduate programme in Fine Art. Collaborated with the head of the department to establish the course. Since 2001 the course has moved to its own studios and gallery premises in Tel Aviv. Currently developing a Curatorial Programme to work alongside the Fine Art MFA.

1998 – 2003
Visiting Lecturer, Creative Curating MA, Goldsmiths, University of London.

1990 - present
Visiting Lecturer:
Purchase, SUNY, USA
Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, Netherlands
University of Guelph, Canada
University of Toronto, Canada
Emily Carr School of Art, Vancouver
University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Monash University, Melbourne, Austalia
University of Leeds
University of Newcastle
University of Reading
Chelsea School of Art
Camberwell School of Art
St Martin’s School of Art
Byam Shaw School of Art
Maumaus Art School, Lisbon, Portugal
Arco, Lisbon, Portugal
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm

Areas of supervision

2007-present
Member of Advisory Committee, Government Art Collection

2007
Paul Hamlyn Awards, Jury Member

2006 – present
The Showroom, Board member The Showroom is an independent gallery space in East London with a strong commission history since 1987, specialising in developing projects with emerging artists.

2006 – present
Maumaus, Art School, Lisbon, International Advisory Board

2005 – 2006
Turner Prize 2006, Jury Member

2005 – present
Jewish Book Council, Chair and Trustee Responsible for programming the largest literary festival of its kind, organising some 60 lectures and events over 8 days. Previous year’s sessions included Jacque Derrida in conversation with Helene Cixous, and Salman Rushdie with Bernard Henri-Levy.

2004 – present
Artist Pension Trust, London, Selection Committee APT is a non-profit art organisation, constructed as a mutual fund to support artists, where a selected group of artists contribute their own artworks towards a shared resource and individual pension. There are currently seven APTs, in New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Beijing, Mexico City and Mumbai.

2003 – present
Ellipse Foundation, Advisory Board. Ellipse is one of the largest art foundations in Europe. Its collection is housed in a new building outside of Lisbon.

2003 – present
The Drawing Room, London, Advisory Board. The Drawing Room is an independent gallery space in East London, dedicated to extending the possibilities of drawing in art, based on the model of the Drawing Centre in
New York.

2001 – present
Ben Uri, London Jewish Museum of Art, International Advisory Board.
Founded over 90 years ago, Ben Uri is leading resource for Jewish Art in the UK

2003 – present
Victoria Miro Educational Trust, Trustee. 2004 Jerwood Young Artists Platform, Jury Member 2002, 2004 & 2006 Adi Prize, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Jury Member,

Selected publications

2007:
“In Lieu of the Face”, in Gabriel Klasmer, The Face, Landscape, Gesture and the Monochrome, London: Alexia Goethe Gallery, pp. 6 – 13.
ISBN: 978-1-906463-00-7.

Stay forever and ever and ever, exhibition brochure, 8 pp. unpaginated. ISBN: 978-1-898461-32-6.

“Only you can make this world seem right”, in ed. Sophie von Olfers, Jesper Just: Film Works 2001 – 2007, Rotterdam: Witte de With and Ghent: SMAK,
pp. 82 – 99. ISBN: 978-90-73362-73-4

“Threshold and its Shadow (for YS)”, in ed. Susanne Landau,, Yehudit Sasportas: Guardian of the Threshold (Israeli Pavilion, Venice Biennial), Köln: DuMont Verlag, pp.39 – 41 and 59 – 61. ISBN: 978-3-8321-7773-7.

“Another Memory of the Old Home, in ed. Jürgen Bock, Ângela Ferreira: Maison Tropicale, (Portuguese Pavilion, Venice Biennial), Lisbon: Institutos das Artes & Ministério da Cultura, 60 – 77. ISBN: 978-972-99322-8-1

2006:
“I saw and know what I saw…: Linder as Witness”, in ed. Lionel Bovier, Linder: Works 1976 – 2006, Zurich: JRP Ringier, pp. 128 – 137. ISBN: 3-905701-60-x.

“You are still here…”, in ed. Honey Luard, Mona Hatoum: Hot Spot, London: White Cube, pp. 7-69. ISBN: 0-9550499-7-0.

“’Unknown Content’:Diminished Return”, in ed. Filipa Oliveira, (Re)volver, Lisbon: Plataforma Revolver, pp. 32 – 42. ISBN: 989-20-0432-9.

“‘…so begin always again and again’: Syntactical Spaces, Indebted Figures in the Work of Muntean/Rosenblum”. In eds Bovier, Roncero & Rubio, Muntean/Rosenblum: Make Death Listen, Zurich: JRP Ringier, pp. 92-93, and 131-133 (in Spanish and German, variant editions.).
ISBN: 3-905701-98-7, 3-905701-99-5 and 84-935132-1-0.

“Public and Private Collecting”, chaired discussion, in ed. Melissa Gronlund, Frieze Projects: Artist’ Commissions and Talks, London: Frieze, pp. 137 – 145. ISBN: 0-9553201-0-0

“Space Girl and the Strange Case of Being in Two Places at the Same Time” in Sophie von Hellermann, Judgement Day, London, Koenig Books, pp. 162 – 167. ISBN: 3-86560-057-3.

2005:
“Complications of Absence: Ignasi Aballí and the Constrained Object” in ed. Mela Dávila, 0-24h: Ignasi Aballí. Barcelona: MACBA, Porto: Fundaçao Serralves, Birmingham: Ikon. Two versions of publication; Spanish/Catalan, pp. 117 - 130 and English/Portuguese, pp. 117 - 130.
ISBN: 972-739-151-6 and 84-89771-13-8.

“Prescription Material: You are what you eat” in ed. Honey Luard, Marc Quinn: Chemical Life Support, London: White Cube, pp. 2-5. ISBN: 0-9546501-8-2.

“Mushrooms in the Rain: Gerard Hemsworth and the Deceptive Perspective”, in Gerard Hemsworth, Mushrooms in the Rain, São Paulo: Galeria Brito Cimino,
pp. 4 – 6. ISBN: 85-99470-01-9

“West”, in Dietmar Lutz, The Journey, London: Emily Tsingou, pp. 23 – 39.
ISBN: 0-9532458-2-9.

“Walking through Wall: Catherine Yass’s Politics of Unseeing”, in ed. lvaro Rodríguez Fominaya, Catherine Yass Filmography, Gran Canaria: Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, pp. 72-89. ISBN: 84-89152-73-x.

“Don’t think you knew you were in this song: How Ziggy Sang Susan.”. Chapter in eds. Jacob Fabricius & Fredrik Liew, Susan Philipsz, Konsthall, Malmö,
pp. 46 – 65. ISBN: 91-7704-106-2

2004:
Jason Martin, monograph. Milan: Charta Books. ISBN: 88-8158-483-2.

Rachel Harrison, File Note #2, London: Camden Arts Centre. 8 pp. unpaginated. ISBN: 1-900470-27-6.

“Antony Gormley’s Ethics of Materiality”, in Antony Gormley, Making Space, Gateshead: Baltic, pp. 97 – 111. ISBN: 0-9547196-0-3.

2003:
Shumakom (with Narelle Jubelin), Jerusalem: Artists House.
ISBN: 965-7319-09-9.

Ângela Ferreira: No Place at All, (with Pedro Lapa), Lisbon: Museo de Chiado; AR text pp. 61-82. ISBN: 972-776-189-5

“Holding Centre”, in ed. Sinisa Mitrovic, Phil Collins: I Only Want You to Love Me, Brighton: Photoworks, pp. 100 – 103. ISBN: 1-903796-09-1.

“Ben Kodesh l’Kodesh” (“...Between what is holy and what is holy”), in Hebrew, in eds. Emily D. Bilsky and Avigdor Shinan, Borders of Sanctity in Art, Society and Jewish Thought, Jerusalem: Keter Publishing with Adi Foundation, pp. 146 – 149. ISBN: 965-07-1172-4.

2002:
“Correspondence” in Ghada Amer, London: Gagosian Gallery, pp. 7-19. ISBN: 1-880154-75-7.

“Andrew Renton and Sacha Craddock in Conversation”, in eds. Susan Hiler and Sarah Martin, The Producers: Contemporary Curators in Conversation (5), Gateshead and Newcastle: Baltic and University of Newcastle, pp. 9-46.
ISBN: 1-903655-13-7.

“Conversation between Jonathan Callan, Edward Allington, and Andrew Renton, 4th November 2002, Deptford, London”, in Jonathan Callan, Interference, Walsall: the New Art Gallery, pp. 68 – 71. ISBN: 0-946652-66-x.

“Five Pieces for A.M.”, in Andrea Morein, Nothing is Sudden – Arbeiten mit Licht, Köln: StadtRevue Verlag, pp. 10 –21. No ISBN.

“Aesthetics of the Seamless (Norman Bryson, Mark Gisbourne, Sharon Morris, Andrew Renton, Irit Rogoff)”, in eds. Annette W. Balkema and Henk Slager, Concepts on the Move, Lier en Boog, Series of Philosophy of Art and Art Theory, Volume 17, Amsterdam and New York, pp. 81 – 92. ISBN: 90-4201269-2.

“Disappearing, Dislodging and Logging Off in B.C.”, in ed. Katharine Stout, The Beachcombers, London: Drawing Room, pp. 11 – 16. No ISBN.

“Browser: a Second Visit to the Archive”, with Kitty Scott, in ed. Anna Harding, Potential: Ongoing Archive, Amsterdam and Southampton: Artimo and John Hansard Gallery, pp. 60 – 65. ISBN: 90-75380-48-8.

“Ian Davenport, Gary Hume, Michael Landy”, in ed. Matthew Arnatt, 100 Reviews Backwards, London: Alberta Press, pp. 40 – 41. ISBN: 3-88375-649-0. “East Country Yard Show”, in ed. Matthew Arnatt, 100 Reviews Backwards, London: Alberta Press, p. 48. ISBN: 3-88375-649-0.

“Douglas Gordon, 24 Hour Psycho”, in ed. Matthew Arnatt, 100 Reviews Backwards, London: Alberta Press, p. 56. ISBN: 3-88375-649-0.

“Bethan Huws”, in ed. Matthew Arnatt, 100 Reviews Backwards, London: Alberta Press, p. 65. ISBN: 3-88375-649-0.

“Modern Medicine”, in ed. Matthew Arnatt, 100 Reviews Backwards, London: Alberta Press, p. 87. ISBN: 3-88375-649-0.

Presentations and exhibitions

1999 – present:
Curator, the Cranford Collection, London. The Collection comprises works of art from younger to highly established artists, and engages with artists to commission and support projects. The Foundation is currently seeking a building in central London to make the Collection public. Many works, meanwhile, are made available to international museums for exhibitions and long-term loans.

2007:
Come, Come, Come Into My World. Ellipse Foundation, Lisbon. Selected artists: Francis Alÿs, Miroslaw Balka, John Bock, Jimmie Durham, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Olafur Eliasson, Hamish Fulton, Douglas Gordon, Rodney Graham, Mike Kelley, Joseph Kosuth, Glenn Ligon, Muntean & Rosenblum, Aleksandra Mir, João Onofre, Gabriel Orozco, Raymond Pettibon, Jack Pierson, Anri Sala, Thomas Schütte, Dash Snow, Haim Steinbach, John Stezaker, João Pedro Vale, Franz West, Erwin Wurm, A 200-page catalogue will be published in February.

Stay forever and ever and ever, South London Gallery Curated exhibition: Maarten Baas, Martin Boyce, Spartacus Chetwynd, Tony Conrad, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Jeroen de Rijke / Willem de Rooij, Michael Fullerton, Georg Herold, Ann Veronica Janssens, Andreas Slominski, Monika Sosnowska .

2005:
Untitled exhibition, Christies, London. Robert Barry, Anthony Caro, Martin Creed, Richard Hamilton, Robert Indiana, Barbara Kruger, John Latham, Jonathan Monk, Muntean/Rosenblum, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Mark Titchner.

2002:
Shumakom. Artists’ House, Jerusalem. Project developed at the oldest museum in Jerusalem, in collaboration with the Australian artist Narelle Jubelin

2001:
Total Object Complete with Missing Parts. Tramway, Glasgow: Fiona Banner, Angela Bulloch, Eugenio Dittborn, Ângela Ferreira, Pamela Golden, Narelle Jubelin, Mariele Neudecker, João Penalva, Susan Philipsz, Yehudit Sasportas, Nedko Solakhov, Simon Starling.

1997 - 2000:
Browser. Vancouver and London. The first Browser exhibition took place in Vancouver as a response to an invitation to curate a tri-annual open submission project that had been established over twenty years. By turning the project into a working archive and evolving exhibition space, Browser was able to incorporate the work of 350 artists – believed to have been the largest assembled in North America for a single exhibition. A second version of the project, entitled Bankside Browser, was developed at the request of Tate Modern prior to its opening in 2000, featuring some 350 London-based artists. Browser allows the viewer to make selections from the works in the archive, or to research into local art practice via a database available on CD-ROM or online.

1994 – 1996:
Manifesta 1. Rotterdam. Member of the curatorial team for the first Manifesta exhibition. Manifesta was developed in the early nineties as a response to a newly-united Europe, with a desire to develop a new model for large-scale exhibition-making that could involve cultures often excluded from such international projects. It is unique as a biennial in that it is not tied to a single city, but moves from country to country. The original Manifesta project was developed as a collaboration between thirty-five countries throughout Europe, involving a two-year research programme, travelling to some twenty countries, conducting a dozen public conferences and debates on the nature of the project. This culminated in the largest exhibition held in Europe in 1996, in the twelve major museums of Rotterdam, and additional venues throughout the city.

1996 – 1998:
Founder and Director, Cleveland, London. Project space organizing more than 12 exhibitions a year, publications and CDs.

1993 – 1994:
Walter Benjamin’s Briefcase, Porto, Portugal Christine Borland, Andrea Fisher, Douglas Gordon, Graham Gussin, Caroline Russell, Jane and Louise Wilson.

Conferences

Tate Britain
Tate Modern
Hayward Gallery
Victoria and Albert Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv
Israel Museum, Jerusalem