Kirsty Ogg

Kirsty is Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, where she has worked on a number of exhibitions and related publications.

Staff details

Kirsty Ogg

Position

Lecturer in Curating

Department

Art

Email

k.ogg (@gold.ac.uk)

Kirsty Ogg is currently Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London where she has worked on a number of exhibitions and related publications. She is the former Director of The Showroom (London), an exhibition space dedicated to the commissioning of new work by artists at an early stage in their careers. Kirsty steered The Showroom through a significant stage in its development, introducing new initiatives such as the annual conferences that aimed to address prescient issues in contemporary art theory and practice, the production of annual publications that provided an overview of the gallery’s work and facilitating the organizations move to new premises in north London.

After graduating from the Sculpture Department at Edinburgh College of Art, Kirsty became a member of the organising committee at the artist-led space Transmission between 1993 and 1996.  She then went on to work at Norwich Gallery at Norwich School of Art & Design, and while based there she opened up her flat as an independent exhibition space, providing an alternative platform for the presentation of work in the city. Kirsty has also curated freelance projects including High Red Center for CCA (Glasgow), Slight for Collective Gallery (Edinburgh) and A show of many part, each part more spectacular and elaborate than the last for City Gallery (Leicester). 

Professional projects

Kirsty has worked as curator for the Whitechapel Gallery since 2009, curating solo exhibitions featuring artists Paul Graham, Bethan Huws, Claire Barclay and group exhibitions featuring material generated by the public during Goshka Macuga’s Nature of the Beast Commission and images by over 80 photographers from the Indian sub-continent. 

She worked for ten years as the director of The Showroom, London, commissioning new work from over thirty artists and hosting Showroom Annual Conferences on Props, Events, Encounters: the performance of new sculpture, Artist-culture and the spirit of capitalism, and To Change an Opinion: art and politics in the new world disorder.

She has also worked at Norwich Gallery for two years as an assistant curator and 7 Alexandra Mansions, Norwich as a director. She served for three years as the co-director of Transmission Gallery in Glasgow, and has curated exhibitions at spaces including CCA in Glasgow and Collective Gallery in Edinburgh.

Publications and research outputs

Book

Gupta, Sunil; Singh, Radikal; Nasar, Hammad; Alam, Shahidul; Pinney, Christopher; Gadihoke, Sabeena and Kapur, Geeta. 2010. Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. London, UK: Whitechapel Gallery, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Steidl. ISBN 978-0-85488-179-6

Book Section

Reckitt, Helena. 2013. Gerard Byrne: Like a Man. In: Kirsty Ogg, ed. Gerard Byrne: A State of Neutral Pleasure. London and Stockholm: The Whitechapel Gallery, pp. 36-51. ISBN 978-0-85488-212-0

Martinon, Jean-Paul and Ogg, Kirsty. 2004. To Change an Opinion. In: , ed. The Showroom Annual 2003/4. The Showroom, pp. 25-29. ISBN 0952104040

Article

Ogg, Kirsty. 2009. Kola.

Ogg, Kirsty. 2000. Interview text, Jonathan Monk. Bildung exhibition catalogue,

Project

Ogg, Kirsty. 20 March - 30 May 2010 The Nature of the Beast: Meetings Archive;.

Show/Exhibition

Ogg, Kirsty. 2016. Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016. In: "Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016", Bluecoat, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 9 July – 16 October 2016 and 23 November 2016 to 22 January 2017.

Ogg, Kirsty. 2010. The Bloomberg Commission: Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans. In: "The Bloomberg Commission: Claire Barclay: Shadow Spans", Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom, May 2010 - May 2011.

Ogg, Kirsty. 2010. Bethan Huws; Capelgwyn. In: "Bethan Huws; Capelgwyn", Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 29 January - 18 March 2011.

Conference or Workshop Item

Hammond, Chris; Pearlman, Nina; Rouleau, Martine; Pistella, Jenny; Large, Kelly; Charlesworth, JJ; Buck, Louisa; Maheshwari, Maitreyi and Ogg, Kirsty. 2015. 'Collecting the Emerging Symposium'. In: Collecting the Emerging Symposium -Definitions: What does ‘emerging’ mean in relation to artists’ careers and practices?. University College London, United Kingdom 22 - 23 May 2015.

Edited Book

Ogg, Kirsty, ed. 2011. Shadow Spans; Claire Barclay. London: Whitechapel Gallery. ISBN 978-0-85488-191-8

Ogg, Kirsty, ed. 2010. Goshka Macuga The Nature of the Beast. London: Whitechapel Gallery. ISBN 978-0-85488-180-2

Crone, Bridget and Ogg, Kirsty, eds. 2007. The Showroom Annual 2005/6. The Showroom. ISBN 0954236254

Professional Activity

Ogg, Kirsty. 2010. External Examiner, MA Fine Art.

Ogg, Kirsty. 2006. External Examiner, BA Sculpture & Environmental Art.

Ogg, Kirsty. 2005. External Examiner BA Fine Art.

Research Interests

Interrogating the intersection of performative and cross-disciplinary practices with sculpture; testing the possibilities and parameters of the ‘prop object’; engaging with contemporary renderings of spatial, temporal, material and formal concerns in 3-dimensional work.