Stuart Comer is an American art curator and writer who is currently Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He was co-curator of the 2014 Biennial at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

, alongside

Michelle Grabner Michelle Grabner (born 1962 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) is an artist, curator, and critic based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. She has curated sever ...

and Anthony Elms.

Life and career

Comer received a BA degree in art history from

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, it had 2,105 undergraduate students and 269 faculty members in fall 2016. The 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the 800-acre Cowlin ...

in Minnesota and an MA in curatorial studies from the Royal College of Art, London. He began his career as a book buyer at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Before taking his position at The Museum of Modern Art, he served as the first Curator of Film at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

in London. His projects at Tate Modern included the work of Tony Conrad,

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depend ...

Barbara Hammer Barbara Jean Hammer (May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019) was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Ha ...

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

Djibril Diop Mambéty Djibril Diop Mambéty (January 1945 – July 23, 1998) was a Senegalese film director, actor, orator, composer and poet. Though he made only two feature films and five short films, they received international acclaim for their original and ex ...

, Daria Martin & Zeena Parkins, Shuji Terayama, Throbbing Gristle and Jennifer West. In 2012, when Tate Modern opened a new exhibition space housed in disused former oil tanks, Comer acted as co-curator of the opening festival of live and time-based media that included the work of Boris Charmatz, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Ei Arakawa, Tania Bruguera and Aldo Tambellini, among others. While at Tate Modern, he was responsible for overseeing the acquisition of work for the museum's film and video collection, adding key works by Ant Farm, Cory Arcangel, Charles Atlas, Peter Campus, Oskar Fischinger, Jack Goldstein, Mike Kelley, KwieKulik, Jonas Mekas, Paul McCarthy, Lis Rhodes, Allan Sekula, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Akram Zaatari. From 2002 until 2004, Comer was also Curator of Public Programmes at Tate Modern. He was co-curator of the Lyon Biennial in 2007.

Publications

Comer has contributed writing to publications such as

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

, Frieze, Afterall, Mousse, Parkett and Art Review, and has written on the work of artists

Andrea Fraser Andrea Rose Fraser (born 1965) is a performance artist, mainly known for her work in the area of Institutional Critique. Fraser is based in New York and Los Angeles and is currently Department Head and Professor of Interdisciplinary Studio of the ...

, John Smith, David Lamelas, Tom Burr,

Akram Zaatari Akram Zaatari (born 1966 in Sidon, Lebanon) is a filmmaker, photographer, archival artist and curator. In 1997, he co-founded the Arab Image Foundation with photographers Fouad Elkoury, and Samer Mohdad. His work is largely based on collecting, st ...

Sharon Lockhart Sharon Lockhart (born 1964) is an American artist whose work considers social subjects primarily through motion film and still photography, often engaging with communities to create work as part of long-term projects. She received her BFA from th ...

, Bik Van Der Pol, Mark Morrisroe, and

Gillian Wearing Gillian Wearing CBE, RA (born 10 December 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the Young British Artists, and winner of the 1997 Turner Prize. In 2007 Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her ...

. He is the editor of ''Film and Video Art'' (2009), published by Tate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comer, Stuart Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American art curators People associated with the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Carleton College alumni People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art