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About Chen

Chen Tamir is Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv and also serves as Curatorial Associate at Artis. She was listed by artnet as one of 25 women curators on the rise and by Artslant as one of 15 curators to watch. In her curatorial work, she champions experimental mediums such as installation, video, and performance that shed light on how the personal and the social realms are inherently intertwined. Often working with research-based artists, she gravitates towards complex work that explores how technology and globalization impact our daily lives.

Since joining the CCA in 2012, Tamir has curated over two-dozen exhibitions with artists such as Trevor Paglen, Amie Siegel, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Wilfredo Prieto, as well as a major commission series with the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. She has pioneered the stream of Post-Internet art in Israel with shows like those by Jon Rafman and Oliver Laric, as well as a new series of commissioned artwork that is accessible only on smartphones.

Through her work at Artis, Tamir organized a large-scale traveling exhibition titled “Staring Back at the Sun” that is considered the definitive survey of the development of video art in Israel from the 1970s to 2012. The project premiered with a two-day symposium at the New Museum in New York in 2015 and has been presented in venues in over a dozen venues including Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, and Toronto. A catalogue will be published in 2019 in collaboration with the Tang Museum at Skidmore College.

A tireless advocate for contemporary art, Tamir has advised various organizations, including serving as Curatorial Correspondent to the inaugural triennial in Cleveland, titled FRONT and working with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School in New York. She is on the board of Muslala, a social art and community space in Jerusalem. Tamir’s independent exhibitions have been held at the Jewish Museum, New York, Art in General, the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, TPW, and many others.

Tamir’s previous positions include Executive Director of Flux Factory in New York where she founded an acclaimed residency program and set up a thriving institution. She holds an M.A. from Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies, a B.A. in Anthropology, and a B.F.A. in Visual Art from York University.

Her writing has been published by Sternberg Press, The Exhibitionist, Prefix Magazine, Hyperallergic, Keen On, BOMB, Art21, C Magazine, and many others. She has spoken at the National Gallery of Art, Lithuania, Open Engagement, The Power PlantSotheby’sArt Gallery of Ontario, Vanderbilt University, Bard Center for Curatorial StudiesOpen Engagement, and the  2009 Scope Art Fair.

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Exhibitions & Projects

2018
Curatorial Correspondent for the inaugural FRONT triennial in Cleveland

Captive Portal: A Moment of Silence by Shirin Anlen​ and ​Ziv Schneider, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2017
Trevor Paglen: Behold These Glorious Times!, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Michal Baror: Looters, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Captive Portal: Sebil 21 by Ronnie Karfiol, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Agnieszka Kurant: Assembly Line, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Noa Yafe: The Perfect Crime, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Jon Rafman: Erysichthon, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Captive Portal: Customs and Border Protection Agency, by Sarah A. Friend, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2016
Conditions of Political Choreography, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv and Neuer Berliner Kunstverin (with Yochai Avrahami, Yael Bartana, Noam Enbar / Yonatan Levy, Christian Falsnaes, Ohad Fishof / Noa Zuk, Michal Helfman, Adam Linder, Antje Majewski, Markus Miessen, Ohad Meromi, Susanne M. Winterling et al.)

Ragnar Kjartansson: Architecture and Morality, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2015
Maya Dunietz: Sound Requires a Medium, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Captive Portal: What Does the Internet Sound Like? by Brian House, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Image Blockade: Exterritory (Maayan Amir & Ruti Sela), Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Oliver Laric, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Hilla Toony Navok: Rounding Up the Hours, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
Captive Portal: missdata, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2014
Hiding Wood in Trees: Wilfredo Prieto and Ariel Schlesinger, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Deville Cohen: Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Luciana Kaplun, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Ariel Reichman, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Tamar Harpaz: Kitchen Sink Drama, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Amie Siegel: Provenance, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

2013
Michal Helfman: CHANGE, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

Alona Rodeh: Above and Beyond, Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv

include Sights and Sounds at the Jewish Museum in New York, Emotional Blackmail at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Into the Eye of the Storm at the Israeli Center for Digital Art and Double Take Triple Give at the Museums of Bat Yam. Others shows include Life Stories at TPW, Stutter and Twitch at the Justina Barnicke Gallery, and the Mobile Archive at Art in General.

Her commission for one of Liam Gillick's Pinboards was recently on view at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College for his retrospective.

See also One After Another, a curatorial project that was held at the now defunct National Gallery of Saskatchewan.

Check out her contribution to Ex-Territory, the 2009 Athens Biennial, and Reverse Pedagogy.

Contact

Contact: [email protected]

Image Credits:

Toony (Hila) Navok, Rounding Up the Hours, 2015
Oliver Laric, 2015
Michal Helfman, Change 2013
Michal Baror, Looters, 2017
Maya Dunietz, Sound Requires a Medium, 2016
Exterritory (Maayan Amir & Ruti Sela): Image Blockade, 2015
Conditions of Political Choreography, collaboration with the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) in Berlin, 2016-2017. Co-curated with Marius Babias, Sergio Edelsztein, Sophie Goltz, and featuring artists: Yochai Avrahami, Yael Bartana, Noam Enbar / Yonatan Levy, Christian Falsnaes, Ohad Fishof / Noa Zuk, Michal Helfman, Adam Linder, Antje Majewski, Markus Miessen, Ohad Meromi, Susanne M. Winterling et al.
Christopher Kulendran Thomas, When Platitudes Become Form, 2013
Jon Rafman, Erysichthon, 2017
Agnieszka Kurant, Assembly Line, 2017

All images courtesy and copyright of the Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv