Sue Spaid

Sue Spaid (born 1961 in Pittsburgh) is an American curator and philosopher, currently based in Belgium. She grew up in Saudi Arabia, where her father George Spaid worked for Saudi Aramco as a petroleum engineer. Her interest in contemporary art began while living in Austin, during the early eighties, but intensified when she moved to New York City in 1984, affording her regular visits to East Village and Soho galleries.

She earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983, an M.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York City in 1999, and a PhD in Philosophy from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2013 for the dissertation Work and World: On the Philosophy of Curatorial Practice. She has presented various parts of her dissertation at Goldsmiths College, Central St. Martin's, Stony Brook University Manhattan, and several American Society for Aesthetics conferences.

Between 2010 and 2012, Spaid was Executive Director of The Contemporary, Baltimore.^[1] While at the Contemporary Museum, she published A Field Guide to Patricia Johanson's Works: Built, Proposed, Collected & Published and edited Contemporary Museum: 20 Years. Spaid has taught courses at Art Center College of Design (1993–1998), Otis College of Art and Design (1996–1998), University of Cincinnati (2004–2006), Temple University (2006–2008), and Drexel University (2010).

Spaid’s thematic exhibitions feature all types of art, though she is most known for experiential exhibitions, such as “Action Station: Exploring Open Systems” (1995) at the Santa Monica Museum of Art; “Comestible Compost” (1998) at the Pavilions Marketplace in West Hollywood; “Cremolata Flotage” (1999) on the Andrew J. Barberi Staten Island Ferry; “An Active Life” (2000) at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati;^[2] “Hovering Above” (2008) and “Endurance: Visualizing Time” (2009)^[3] for the Abington Art Center Sculpture Park in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania; and “Microfibers” (2009) at Locks Gallery, Philadelphia. She has organized career surveys for Jim Isermann (1993, Sue Spaid Fine Art), Robert Overby (1994, Sue Spaid Fine Art), Lynne Berman/ Kathy Chenoweth (1997, Special K), Eileen Cowin (2000, Armory Center for the Arts) and Jim Shaw (2000, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati).

Professional background

Since 1984, Spaid has lived in New York City, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Baltimore, where she has been active in the art world as a collector, art writer, curator and adjunct professor. While Curator at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (1999–2002), she curated fourteen solo shows, organized five thematic exhibitions and authored the book Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies^[4] to accompany the exhibition, co-curated with Amy Lipton. In 2010, she was awarded an Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award to produce "Green Acres: Artists Farming Fields, Greenhouses and Abandoned Lots," which was accompanied by a 244-page book, featuring 200 full-color illustrations and three chronologies. In 2012, "Green Acres" opened at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, and traveled to the Arlington Art Center, Arlington, Virginia and the American University Museum, Washington, DC.

As an independent curator, Spaid has organized over 50 exhibitions for artist-run spaces, university galleries, commercial galleries and museums, including the Abington Art Center, Armory Center for the Arts, Bellevue Arts Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Mississippi Museum of Art, P*P*O*W, Santa Monica Museum of Art, SPACES in Cleveland, and The Suburban. In 2005, she and Patrizia Giambi discovered and documented the remains of Robert Smithson’s Asphalt Rundown (1969) in a quarry outside of Rome, Italy, an experience Spaid documented in Domus.^[5] During her 2005-2006 “Yes Brainer Tour,” she traveled via car through 38 states presenting “The Gist of Isness,” based on an essay published in X-tra^[6] and delivered at the 2006 Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Portland, Oregon.

Spaid's ephemeral performance career began at Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA; where she read “This Aint No Manifesta” during Manifesto Night (1992, interpreted “Vindicating the Vulva” during Erotica Night (1996), and Tree-Top awarded cultural heroes (1997) during July 4 Readings. Tree-top is one of several alter egos (plus Pippi and Dragon-Princess) who have performed and exhibited since the mid-90s. Spaid modeled outfits designed by Antonio Gomez-Bueno during “The Gomez-Bueno Spiritual Fashion Show” (1993); Gomez-Bueno and Pippi during the "Food House Fashion Show" (1994) and Lun*na Menoh in "He(ad)dress" (1997). The Dragon Princess launched her "presidential campaign" at the Lotus Motel (1995).^[7] In 1997, Spaid hosted the live talk-show “Trailblazing the Economies of Art” in the Barnsdall Art Park auditorium. She played a cameo role in Martin Durazo’s film Suck It Up (1998).^[8] Olga the May-Day Nymph performed only once at Dirt (1998), Los Angeles, CA. Works created by Tri Via, a collaboration between her alter egos were exhibited in “Grouptopia” (2001) at Warsaw Projects, Cincinnati, OH; and “Tasty Buds” (2003) at The Work Space, New York City, NY. In the mid-90s, Spaid co-wrote for Coagula under the nom de plume Miles Tut-Hill.

In addition to collaborating with Alysse Stepanian on the multi-media event scourge.org at OnetoManyThree (1999), Spaid performed “Suitably Contrite” (1998) (Socrates' The Apology & Dave Soldier soundtrack) at TwoMANYtwo. Soldier also dejayed “Worker’s Opiate” (1999), an outdoor fashion show at the corner of Walker & Broadway, New York City, across the street from Canal Self Serve, whose motto “Serve Yourself and Save” inspired artists to create fashion from less than $10 of stuff purchased there. In 2000, Jan Baum Gallery presented “Used and Amused,” which featured works by twelve artists who had used Spaid as their muse.^[9]

She has thrice curated shows within shows, “Migration Platform” within “Once Upon a Time in the West” (2007), curated by Mark Harris; “Artists’ Installation Instructions” appeared both in “appropriately enough” (2004) at Warsaw Projects, Cincinnati, OH and “view do” (2005) at the Suburban, Oak Park, IL.^[10]

Sue Spaid Fine Art

From 1990 to 1995, Spaid’s Los Angeles gallery presented solo shows by artists Lynn Aldrich, Polly Apfelbaum, Angie Bray, Carole Caroompas, Laura Cooper, Steve De Groodt, Jacci Den Hartog, D.E.M. (Jan Tumlir/Erik Otsea), Steve Derrickson, Nancy Evans, Terrie Friedman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Theresa Hackett, Larry Hammerness, Jim Isermann, Patrick Nickell, Robert Overby, Carter Potter, Adam Ross, Carole Szymanski, John Souza, Kevin Sullivan, Wastijn & Deschuymer, and Marnie Weber.

Ten thematic exhibitions featured works by gallery artists and Maura Bendett, Keith Boadwee, Robbie Cavolina, Russell Crotty, Linda Daniels, Sally Elesby, Sharon Ellis, Ava Gerber, Robert Gero, Patrizia Giambi, Michael Joaquin Grey, Paula Hayes, Jim Isermann, Shirley Kaneda, Kahty Chen Milstead, Dave Muller, David Schafer, Marc Schlesinger, Pam Strugar,^[11] Linda Stark, Fred Tomaselli and Richard Tuttle.

“In the Courtyard,” presented outdoor projects (1992–1995) by Lindsay Alstrom, Phyllis Baldino, Lynne Berman/Charlotte Moorman, Kahty Chen Milstead, Steve Hurd, Laura Howe, Eric Otsea, Eric Magnuson, Robert Overby and Jennifer Steinkamp.

In addition to gallery artists receiving dozens of reviews in Artforum,^[12] Art issues,^[13] Frieze,^[14] and Contemporanea,^[15] The New York Times featured Sue Spaid as the cover image that accompanied Roberta Smith’s story “The Art World’s New Image,” December 29, 1992.^[16]

Recurring collaborators

Collaborators have included Michael Anderson, Jay Belloli, Maura Bendett, Kristian Bjørnard, Robert Blackmon, Angie Bray, Kendall Bruns, Emily Buddendeck, Fred Dewey, Robert Gero, Patrizia Giambi, Theresa Hackett, Twan Janssen, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel, Amy Lipton, Dave Muller, Kahty Chen Milstead,Ole Jørgen Ness, David Schafer, Alysse Stepanian/Philip Mantione, Shirley Tse, and Christian Wilhelmy.

Publication history

Spaid currently contributes to the Flemish art magazine Hart. From 2003-2012, she was a member of the Contributors Board for artUS, writing regularly for this LA art publication and its predecessor ArtText since 1997. She has also written for Art issues.,^[17] Art in America,^[18] LA Weekly,^[19] Village Voice^[20] and New Art Examiner.^[21]

For artUS, she discussed exhibitions of works by David Altmejd, Diane Burko, Marcel Duchamp, Dan Flavin, Victor Grippo, Terence Hammonds, Nadia Hironaka/Mathew Suib, Mark Harris, Thomas Hirschhorn, Carsten Höller, Jonathan Horowitz, Nina Katchadourian, Rockwell Kent, the land foundation, Jennifer Levonian, Tony Luensman, Margherita Manzelli, Martin Margiela, Ree Morton, Ron Mueck, Laurel Nakadate, Cecilia Paredes, Roxanne Pérez-Méndez, Nouveau Réalisme, Jorge Pardo, Todd Pavlisko, Richard Pettibone, Print Liberation, Liza Ryan, Simparch, the Situationist International and George Stone; and reviewed Manifesta 7, U-Turn Quadrenniel for Contemporary Art, Carnegie International, The Whitney Biennial and Dia:Beacon and interviewed philosophers, such as Richard Shusterman and Joseph Margolis.

Exhibitionography

References

External links

• "The Los Angeles Art World's New Image", by Roberta Smith, The New York Times, 29 December 1992