Anthony Elms is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

curator, writer, and artist based in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. In 2015, Elms was named Chief Curator at the ICA Philadelphia.

Career

Education

Elms received a BFA in painting from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

and an MFA from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Curatorial and Art Practice

Elms spent over 15 years in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, working as an exhibition preparator, a freelance writer, and a curator; as well as making fine art. As of 2013, Elms continued to exhibit as an artist. Elms was Assistant Director of

Gallery 400 Gallery 400 is a not-for-profit arts exhibition space within the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago. It was founded in 1983 to exhibit and support art, design and architecture. Over its histo ...

at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

for six years. In 2011, Elms joined the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

’s Institute of Contemporary Art as an associate curator. At the ICA, Elms organized “''White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart''” (2013), which included artists working with themes of adornment, such as

Lynda Benglis Lynda Benglis (born October 25, 1941) is an American sculptor and visual artist known especially for her wax paintings and poured latex sculptures. She maintains residences in New York City, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kastellorizo, Greece, and Ahmedaba ...

Karen Kilimnik Karen Kilimnik (born 1955) is an American painter and installation artist. Life and work Karen traveled through much of the United States and Canada as a young child. She often spoke of Russell, Manitoba as being an inspiration for her later wo ...

Zoe Leonard Zoe Leonard (born 1961) is an American artist who works primarily with photography and sculpture. She has exhibited widely since the late 1980s and her work has been included in a number of seminal exhibitions including documenta, Documenta IX and ...

Paulina Olowska Paulina Olowska (born 1976, Gdańsk) is a Polish painter and photographer, who also works in the field of performance and video-art, social action and applied art. The areas of her artistic explorations are modernist utopias and research on the w ...

, and

Frances Stark Frances Stark (born 1967) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer, whose work centers on the use and meaning of language, and the translation of this process into the creative act. She often works with carbon paper to hand-trace letters, words, a ...

. In 2014, Elms co-curated the 2014

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

Stuart Comer 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 in New York City. He was co-curator of the 2014 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, alongside M ...

and

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 ...

at the

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 ...

. Each curator was given a floor. Elms worked with artist

on her contribution to the Whitney Biennial, a room-sized camera obscura , which won her the $100,000

Bucksbaum Award The Bucksbaum Award was established in 2000 by the Bucksbaum Family Foundation and the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is awarded biannually "to honor an artist, living and working in the United States, whose work demonstrates a singular combinat ...

, given to one artist in the show every Biennial since 2000. The floor which Elms organized included works by

Terry Adkins Terry Roger Adkins (May 9, 1953 – February 8, 2014) was an American artist. He was Professor of Fine Arts in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Early life Adkins was born in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 1953, into a mus ...

, Elijah Burgher,

My Barbarian My Barbarian is a Los Angeles based collaborative theatrical group consisting of Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade. The trio makes site-responsive performances and video installations that use theatrical play to draw allegorical narra ...

Susan Howe Susan Howe (born June 10, 1937) is an American poet, scholar, essayist, and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among other poetry movements.

Charlemagne Palestine Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born August 15, 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initia ...

Allan Sekula Allan Sekula (January 15, 1951 – August 10, 2013) was an American photographer, writer, filmmaker, theorist and critic. From 1985 until his death in 2013, he taught at California Institute of the Arts. His work frequently focused on large economi ...

, and others. Elms worked as an associate producer for the 2011 PERFORMA visual art biennial.

Writing & Editing

Elms edits and is the curator of WhiteWalls, an alternative space for artists’ publication projects founded in the 1970s. White Walls periodically publishes books and distributes them through the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

. Elms’s writings have been published in various periodicals, including

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 PAPERS, Cakewalk,

Art Asia Pacific ''ArtAsiaPacific'' is the longest running English-language periodical solely dedicated to covering contemporary art and culture from sixty-seven countries, territories, and Chinese Special Administrative Regions that it considers to be within As ...

Modern Painters Modern may refer to: History *Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Philosophy ...

, and

New Art Examiner The ''New Art Examiner'' is a bi-monthly international magazine of critical art thinking founded in Chicago, Illinois in October 1973 by Derek Guthrie and Jane Addams Allen. Publication ceased in 2002. The magazine was relaunched in Cornwall, UK ...

References

External links

Anthony Elms Prepares for the Whitney Biennial - The New York Times
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elms, Anthony Living people American art curators People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art University of Illinois Chicago alumni Year of birth missing (living people)