Carlo McCormick is an American

culture critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social theory, social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the socia ...

and

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

living in

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 is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

and artists.

Pedagogic and art writing activities

McCormick was Senior Editor of ''

Paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre e ...

''. He lectures and teaches extensively at universities and colleges around the United States on

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...

and art. His writing has appeared in '' Effects : Magazine for New Art Theory,'' ''

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An ...

,'' '' Art in America,'' '' Art News,'' '' Artforum,'' ''Camera Austria,'' '' High Times,'' '' Spin,'' '' Tokion,'' ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or Habit (psychology), habit generally considered immorality, immoral, sinful, crime, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refe ...

'' and other magazines. He appears in an on-camera interview in the 2017 documentary film '' Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat'' by Sara Driver that contains extensive coverage of Colab, '' The Real Estate Show'', ''

The Times Square Show ''The Times Square Show'' was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc) in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and ...

'' and ABC No Rio.

''The Downtown Show: the New York Art Scene from 1974 to 1984''

McCormick was guest curator of the exhibition ''The Downtown Show: the New York Art Scene from 1974 to 1984'' (in consultation with Lynn Gumpert, and Marvin J. Taylor) that was held at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

’s Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library. The exhibition examined the rich cross-section of artists and activities that coexisted and often overlapped in Lower Manhattan between 1974 and 1984. Emerging out of the deflated optimism of the

Summer of Love The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco's neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury ...

(and energized by the enactment of the loft laws that made it legal for artists to live in downtown New York's industrial spaces) the Downtown no wave scene attracted painters, sculptors, photographers, musicians,

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, filmmakers, and writers who could afford the then-low rent lofts and

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally ...

tenement apartments. The ''Downtown Show: the New York Art Scene from 1974 to 1984'' show traveled to the

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

Museum in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

(May 20 to September 3, 2006) and the Austin Museum of Art, in Austin,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

(November 18, 2006, to January 28, 2007). It was chosen as first place winner by the International Association of Art Critics/USA (AICA USA) for best thematic show in

in 2005-2006.

Other curatorial activities

In 1985, McCormick curated the ''Tellus #8 USA/Germany'' issue of '' Tellus Audio Cassette Magazine''. McCormick has also curated art shows for the

Bronx Museum of Art The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by A ...

, the

Queens Museum of Art The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among i ...

and the Woodstock Center for Photography, and collaborated with The Museum of Sex on their exhibition ''Punk Lust: Raw Provocation 1971-1985'', featuring visuals chronicling the emergence of

punk subculture The punk subculture includes a diverse and widely known array of ideologies, fashion, and other forms of expression, visual art, dance, literature, and film. Largely characterised by anti-establishment views, the promotion of individual freedo ...

and punk music.
Carlo McCormick picks the 10 pieces that cemented the radical legacy of a game-changing art scene

References

External links

Carlo McCormick interview published on March 4, 2019, by New York Said Podcast

Carlo McCormick at MoMA on KAWS and his art collection

Carlo McCormick Arte, ARTE Interview concerning the history of

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

artists in New York City {{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, Carlo American art critics American art historians Living people Cultural historians Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Postmodernists Academics from New York (state) American art curators

Pedagogic and art writing activities

''The Downtown Show: the New York Art Scene from 1974 to 1984''

Other curatorial activities

References

Further reading

External links