curatorial

Steven Holmes has been Curator of The Cartin Collection in Hartford since 2005.  From 2009 to 2012 he was Adjunct Curator at The Bass Museum of Art in Miami where he conceived of and curated the exhibition series The Endless Renaissance. From 2000 – 2005, he was the Director of Visual Arts and Public Programming at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

Additionally, Holmes has curated exhibitions that include Jack Tilton Gallery, Sperone Westwater and David Zwirner galleries in New York, The Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, The Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art in Hartford, the Freud Museum in London and the Boston Center for the Arts.

Holmes conceived of and worked with Creative Time to mount the multi-city performance of Fairytale – 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei.  Simultaneous performances took place in Hong Kong, Berlin, Paris, Athens, Helsinki, Toronto, New York, Chicago, LA, Madrid, Brussels, Stockholm and twenty other cities around the world.  

Holmes has published in the areas of critical theory and art criticism. In 2008, Holmes edited FESTSCHRIFT, with essays by Carlos Basualdo, Nicholas Baume, and James Rondeau. Recent books edited include “Martin Wilner, Case Histories” (Freud Museum London, 2016) and recent essays have appeared in “Explode Every Day” (MIT Press, 2016) and “Oh Canada”, (MASSMOCA Press 2014). Most recently he coedited and authored an essay in Seen in the Mirror: Things from the Cartin Collection, (David Zwirner New York 2023).

Holmes has been a visitor at Skowhegan, the Ontario College of Art and Design, Yale School of Art, Art Omi, University of Connecticut, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, University of Lethbridge and Hartford Art School.

Projects have been reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, Art Forum, The New Yorker Magazine, The Art Newspaper, LeMonde, Die Zeit, artnet, artUS, Art News, Tema Celeste, Flash Art International and Art New England.

He has appeared on TV and Radio in the United States and Europe to speak about contemporary art, and art and social change, including NBC Miami, BBC5 London, CBC Halifax and Toronto, and Connecticut Public Radio.

Steven Holmes holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and History from the University of Toronto, a Master of Theological Studies in Religion and Culture from Harvard University, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.