Mia Locks is a contemporary art curator and museum leader.

Career

Professional Experience

Mia Locks is an independent curator and writer based in Los Angeles. She co-founded and leads Museums Moving Forward, a data-driven research initiative to support equity in the art museum sector, funded by Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation. She serves on the board of Clockshop, an arts organization in Los Angeles. She is also an editorial advisor on the podcasts "Hope & Dread: The Tectonic Shifts of Power in Art." " and The Art World: What If...?!" Locks' recent exhibitions include ''The Deep West Assembly Cauleen Smith'' (2024) at

Astrup Fearnley Museet The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art is a privately owned contemporary art gallery in Oslo in Norway. It was founded and opened to the public in 1993. The collection's main focus is the American appropriation artists from the 1980s, but it i ...

in Oslo and ''Miranda July: New Society'' (2024) at

Fondazione Prada Fondazione Prada, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995, is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture. From 1993 to 2010, the Fondazione has organised 24 solo shows at its exhibition spaces in Milan, concei ...

in Milan. Previously, Locks worked as a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA);

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York; and

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution at 2201 Jackson Avenue in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, United States. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

, New York. Most recently, she was Senior Curator and Head of New Initiatives at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

. Prior to MOCA, Locks was co-curator of the 2017

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

, with Christopher Y. Lew. At

, she organized exhibitions including Math Bass: ''Off the Clock'' (2015); IM Heung-soon: ''Reincarnation'' (2015); Samara Golden: ''The Flat Side of the Knife'' (2014); and ''The Little Things Could Be Dearer'' (2014). She also co-curated ''Greater New York'' (2015), with

Douglas Crimp John Douglas Crimp (August 19, 1944 July 5, 2019) was an American art historian, critic, curator, and AIDS activist. He was known for his scholarly contributions to the fields of postmodern theories and art, institutional critique, dance, film, ...

, Peter Eleey, and Thomas J. Lax. As an independent curator, she organized ''Ulrike Müller: or both'' (2019) at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, and ''Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945–1980'' (2011), with David Evans Frantz, at the

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries is the oldest existing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) organization in the United States and one of the largest repositories of LGBTQ materi ...

in Los Angeles, as part of

the Getty The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthiest a ...

’s inaugural Pacific Standard Time initiative.

Writing and Teaching

Lock's writing has appeared in

Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Ex ...

, ''Mousse'', ''

Afterall Afterall is a nonprofit contemporary art research and publishing organisation. It is based in London, at Central Saint Martins. It publishes the journal ''Afterall;'' the book series ''Readers,'' ''One Works'' and ''Exhibition Histories.'' His ...

'', '' Art Journal'', and several exhibition catalogues including texts on artists such as Miranda July, Math Bass, Samara Golden, Shara Hughes, William Pope.L, and Carrie Moyer. She edited the first monograph of Samara Golden's work, ''The Flat Side of the Knife'', published by

in 2014. She served on the faculty of the M.A. program in Curatorial Practice at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

, New York from 2017-2019.

Education

Locks received a BA from Brown University and an MA from the University of Southern California (USC). She was a 2018 fellow at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Locks, Mia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Brown University alumni University of Southern California alumni School of Visual Arts faculty American art curators American women curators American women writers People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art American women academics 21st-century American women