Conference Joshua Decter: "Art as Contradiction"

Joshua Decter is a writer, curator, and art historian whose books include Art Is a Problem: Selected Criticism, Essays, Interviews and Curatorial Projects (1986-2012), published by JRP|Ringier in 2014, and Exhibition as Social Intervention: Culture in Action 1993, published by Afterall Books, also in 2014.

Decter has contributed to publications such as Artforum, Art Review, Mousse, Umbigo, Texte zur Kunst, and other magazines, and has written numerous essays for exhibition catalogues of artists over the past decades, including Catherine Opie, General Idea, On Kawara, Mel Chin, Monica Bonvicini, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fred Wilson, Keith Haring, Joan Jonas, Anton Vidokle, Isa Genzken, Jonathan Horowitz, Rick Lowe/Project Row Houses, Andrea Fraser, Cristina Garrido, Luisa Cunha, and Amy Sillman.

In his book Art Is a Problem, Decter reflects on the paradoxical condition of art as both a historical and contemporary phenomenon: that is, art problematises things but also has intrinsic problems. The book examines examples of historical and contemporary art, architecture, and urbanism, the interrelationship between museums and institutional critique, and curating as a language/practice that demands rethinking—considering various ideological, public, discursive, and social contexts.

His other book, Exhibition as Social Intervention, is an in-depth analysis of Mary Jane Jacob’s groundbreaking exhibition Culture in Action (1993), a key moment in the critical reassessment of traditional museum curating and public art conventions. The book explores how this exhibition project—held in various urban locations in Chicago—helped accelerate the transition towards socially engaged art and social practice.

Decter has curated exhibitions at PS1 (MoMA PS1), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Center for Curatorial Studies Museum at Bard College, Kunsthalle Vienna, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, and Apex Art. He has taught at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, the School of Visual Arts in New York, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Cooper Union in New York, Bennington College in Vermont, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, New York University, UCLA, and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena.