Bennett Simpson
Wednesday, March 28, 2018 at 6:00pm
Rice Cinema Film Auditorium, Rice Media Center
Reception to follow

Bennett Simpson is Senior Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where he has worked since 2007. He is the organizer of recent exhibitions with Zoe Leonard, R.H. Quaytman, William Pope.L, and Mike Kelley, among other artists, as well as the interdisciplinary thematic exhibition "Blues for Smoke."  Simpson will discuss these shows and others within a talk about the changing landscape of art history, curating and institutions.   

Simpson has organized numerous exhibitions including ‘MOCA Focus: Lisa Lapinski’ (2008); ‘Dan Graham: Beyond’ (2009, co-curated with Chrissie Iles); ‘William Leavitt: Theater Objects’ (2011, co-curated with Ann Goldstein); ‘Kenneth Anger: ICONS’ (2011); ‘Bob Mizer & Tom of Finland’ (2013); ‘William Pope.L: Trinket’ (2015); and ‘R. H. Quaytman: Morning, Chapter 30’ (2016). His interdisciplinary thematic exhibition Blues for Smoke appeared at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in 2012 before traveling to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013), and the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (2013). In 2014, Simpson oversaw MOCA’s presentation of the touring retrospective ‘Mike Kelley.’ His most recent exhibition is a retrospective of the work of Zoe Leonard. The catalogue for Leonard’s museum survey will be published by Prestel in March 2018.

The Arts in the Humanities Lecture Series is generously supported by the Jerome Segal Endowment in the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts as well as the Dean of the School of Humanities. 

The Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts supports the Arts in the Humanities Lecture Series that brings national and international artists and scholars to give talks on their work and research.  The lectures are during the academic year, usually once in the fall and once in the spring.