Sophie Hackett (born 1971) is the curator of photography at the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

, Toronto.

Career

Sophie Elizabeth Hackett was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. She completed her BA at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

(1990-1994) but became interested in photography and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver (1995-1998). After graduation, she worked for the Jane Corkin Gallery in Toronto from 1998–2000, followed by a Curatorial Internship, Photography, at the

(AGO) (2002–2003), then did her Master of Arts, Humanities (Art History) at 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 ...

(2003–2004). In 2005-2006, she was appointed a

J. Paul Getty Museum 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 wealthies ...

, Los Angeles Graduate Intern in the Department of Photographs, then became Assistant Curator, Photography, at the AGO (2006–2013), Associate Curator (2013-2016) and in 2016, she was appointed full Curator, Photography,Sophie Hackett curriculum vitae. Sophie Hackett file,

E.P. Taylor Edward Plunket Taylor, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG (January 29, 1901 – May 14, 1989), was a Canadians, Canadian business tycoon, investor, and philanthropist. He was a famous breeder of Thoroughbred horse racing, r ...

Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario taking over from Maia-Mari Sutnik and actively curating, contributing to publications, and participating on juries, both national and international. Hackett's area of specialization is

vernacular photography The term vernacular photography is used in several related senses. Each is in one way or another meant to contrast with received notions of fine-art photography. Vernacular photography is also distinct from both found photography and amateur photo ...

, photography in relation to queerness; and photography in Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s. She also has served as an adjunct faculty member in

Ryerson University Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU, or Toronto Met), formerly Ryerson University, is a public research university located in Toronto, Canada. The university's core campus is situated within the Garden District in downtown Toronto, although i ...

’s Master’s degree program in Film + Photography Preservation and Collections Management, and was a 2017 fellow with the Center for Curatorial Leadership. She was a juror four times for the Grange Prize / Aimia AGO Photography Prize in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017. She also served as a juror for the Scotiabank Photography Award for 2020 ( Dana Claxton), 2021 ( Deanna Bowen) and upcoming for 2022.

Exhibitions

Although Hackett`s first major show was in 2002 with the touring exhibition ''The Found and the Familiar: Snapshots in Contemporary Canadian Art'' at Gallery TPW (Hackett served on the Board of Gallery TPW from 2007–2019 (2011–2019 as president)), she only began to achieve critical attention with such shows as ''What It Means To be Seen: Photography and Queer Visibility'' and ''Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography'', two exhibitions which she assembled in 2014 as part of the AGO’s World Pride 2014 programming and ''Outsiders: American Photography and Film, 1950s–1980s'', which she co-curated, in 2016. In 2018, she curated ''Anthropocene'' at the same time as the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

to chronicle the irreversible impact of humans on the Earth accompanied by a film"Burtynsky's Anthropocene coming to the AGO in September 2018"
''

Now Now most commonly refers to the present time. Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to: Organizations * Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization * National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization * Na ...

'', November 15, 2017. and book by

Edward Burtynsky Edward Burtynsky (born February 22, 1955) is a Canadian photographer and artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. His works depict locations from around the world that represent the increasing development of indust ...

, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier, and in 2020, she curated and hung a major exhibition of

Diane Arbus Diane Arbus (; ; March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971
by

titled ''Diane Arbus: Photographs, 1956–1971'' which the

Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it fall ...

called a tasteful, chronological display. The exhibition featured 150 photographs which the AGO acquired in 2016 along with another 300-odd photographs by Arbus, making the AGO a major center of Arbus photographs but the show was quickly closed due to the pandemic. In 2022 the AGO exhibited another Hackett show: ''What Matters Most: Photographs of Black Life'', the Fade Resistance Collection. This group of 3500 Polaroids documenting African American family life from the 1970s to the early 2000s, was assembled by Canadian photographer, physician and educator Zun Lee and acquired by the AGO in 2018. In 2023, the show ''Casa Susanna'' opened, co-curated by Hackett with French photo historian, Isabelle Bonnet, as well as American scholar of trans history

Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT St ...

and coproduced by the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Rencontres D'Arles. It offers insight into the historically significant crossdressing scene. Hackett discussed the work of Casa Suzanna on Youtube.

Writing

Hackett's has authored essays for catalogues of shows in which she was the curator or co-curator such as ''What It Means to be Seen: Photography and Queer Visibility'', Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, in 2014 which the Globe and Mail said put the identities of LGBT artists in context; and the essay and short texts for each of the artists she wrote for the catalogue of the ''Outsiders: American Photography and Film, 1950s–1980s'' exhibition in 2016 at the Art Gallery of Ontario (she acted as co-editor of the book/catalogue which accompanied the show as well). Other major texts by Hackett can be found in books such her essay "A New Scene in Montreal", in the book by Tavi Gevinson ( Georgiana Uhlyarik, Ed.) ''Introducing Suzy Lake'' (London and Toronto: Black Dog Publishing and the Art Gallery of Ontario, 2014) and articles such as "Queer Looking: Joan E. Biren’s Slide Shows",

Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

, no. 218 (spring 2015) as well as "Encounters in the Museum: The Experience of Photographic Objects" in the Ryerson Image Centre and MIT Press volume ''The "Public" Life of Photographs'' (Toronto and Boston, 2016) (here she relayed an account of the formation of the photography department at the AGO and its particular character) and are found in many other publications such as her "Bobbie in Context" chapter in ''Imagining Everyday Life: Engagements with Vernacular Photography'' (Steidl and The Walther Collection, 2020).

Recognition

Her exhibitions are notable for the way they reveal the AGO collection of more than 40,000 photographs and Hackett for jumping "deftly between eras, materials, subjects and genres, laying bare both the ubiquity of the photographic image, and the form’s persistent plasticity" as well as for defying cliché in presenting "thoughtful and political" views of gay culture. In addition, her exhibition of ''Introducing Suzy Lake'' which she co-curated with Georgiana Uhlyarik won the 2015 Ontario Association of Art Galleries prize for exhibition installation and design.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hackett, Sophie 1971 births Living people 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian art historians Canadian women non-fiction writers University of Toronto alumni University of Chicago alumni Canadian women art historians Canadian art curators Writers from Montreal Canadian LGBTQ writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Photography curators Canadian women curators 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Art museum people