Mia Locks is a contemporary art curator and museum leader.

Career

Professional Experience

Mia Locks is an independent curator and writer based in Los Angeles. She co-founded and leads Museums Moving Forward, a data-driven research initiative to support equity in the art museum sector, funded b
Ford Foundation
an
Mellon Foundation
She serves on the board o
Clockshop
an arts organization in Los Angeles. She is also an editorial advisor on the podcasts
Hope & Dread: The Tectonic Shifts of Power in Art
" " an
The Art World: What If...?!
Previously, Locks worked as a curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA);

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York; and MoMA PS1, New York. Most recently, she was Senior Curator and Head of New Initiatives at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

. Prior to MOCA, Locks was co-curator of the 2017

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

, with Christopher Y. Lew. At MoMA PS1, she organized exhibitions including

Math Bass Math Bass (b. 1981, New York, New York) is an artist known for fusing performance with paintings and sculptures using formal elements like solid colors, geometric imagery, raw materials, and visual symbols. Bass has exhibited at Overduin & Kite, H ...

: ''Off the Clock'' (2015); IM Heung-soon: ''Reincarnation'' (2015); Samara Golden: ''The Flat Side of the Knife'' (2014); and ''The Little Things Could Be Dearer'' (2014). She also co-curated ''Greater New York'' (2015), with

Douglas Crimp John Douglas Crimp (August 19, 1944 July 5, 2019) was an American art historian, critic, curator, and AIDS activist. He was known for his scholarly contributions to the fields of postmodern theories and art, institutional critique, dance, film ...

, Peter Eleey, and Thomas J. Lax. As an independent curator, she organized ''Ulrike Müller: or both'' (2019) at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, and ''Cruising the Archive: Queer Art and Culture in Los Angeles, 1945–1980'' (2011), with David Evans Frantz, at the

ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries is the oldest existing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organization in the United States and one of the largest repositories of LGBT materials ...

in Los Angeles, as part of

the Getty ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

’s inaugural Pacific Standard Time initiative.

Writing and Teaching

Lock's writing has appeared i
Artnet
''

Mousse A mousse (; ; "foam") is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as e ...

'', '' Afterall'', ''Art Journal'', and several exhibition catalogues including texts on artists such as Math Bass, Samara Golden, Shara Hughes, William Pope.L, and Carrie Moyer. She edited the first monograph of Samara Golden's work, ''The Flat Side of the Knife'', published by MoMA PS1 in 2014. She served on the faculty of the M.A. program in Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts, New York from 2017-2019.

Education

Locks received a BA from Brown University and an MA from the University of Southern California (USC). She was a 2018 fellow at th
Center for Curatorial Leadership
in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

External links

How the podcast ‘Hope & Dread’ examines the turmoil affecting art and artistsWhitney.org - Whitney Biennial 2017
*[http://www.artnews.com/2017/03/14/the-2017-whitney-biennial-is-a-moving-forward-looking-tour-de-force-a-triumph/ The 2017 Whitney Biennial Is a Moving, Forward-Looking Tour de Force—a Triumph (ArtNews)]
The New Whitney Biennial Is the Most Political in Decades (New York Magazine)Openings: Samara Golden (Artforum)Math Bass: Codes and Keys (W Magazine)MoMAPS1.org - Greater New York 2015Greater New York at MoMA PS1 (Artforum)
* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/arts/design/im-heung-soon-explores-the-horrors-women-endure-in-war.html Im Heung-soon Explores the Horrors Women Endure During War (NY Times)br>MoMAPS1.org - The Little Things Could Be Dearer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Locks, Mia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Brown University alumni University of Southern California alumni School of Visual Arts faculty American art curators American women curators American women writers People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art American women academics 21st-century American women