Rujeko Hockley (born in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

) is a

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

-based US curator. Hockley is currently an Assistant Curator at the

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), ...

Life and education

Born in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, Hockley relocated to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

with her family at age two, and frequently spent time in

and abroad, due to her parents’ jobs in international development. Hockley received a B.A. in

Art History Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She attended graduate school from 2009 to 2012 at

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

, where she is a Ph.D. Candidate. Hockley is married to the conceptual artist

Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas (born 1976 in Plainfield, New Jersey; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) is an American conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Early life and education Hank Willis Th ...

Career

After her undergraduate education, Hockley worked as a curatorial assistant as the

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

where she worked for two years alongside Director

Thelma Golden Thelma Golden (born 1965 in St. Albans, Queens) is the Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City, United States. Golden joined the Museum as Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs in 2000 before succeeding ...

. After her work at the Studio Museum, Hockley moved to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

for a year and a half to teach

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Once she came back to the states, Hockley applied to graduate art history and curatorial practice programs, attending

from 2009 to 2012. In 2012, Hockley became the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, a position she held for four years. While working at the Brooklyn Museum, Hockley worked on many exhibitions and related programming, including solo shows featuring

LaToya Ruby Frazier LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) is an American artist and professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier began photographing her family and hometown at the age of 16, revising the socia ...

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977)"Kehinde Wiley"
''Artnet''. Retrieved October 13, 2010. i ...

, and

Tom Sachs Tom Sachs (born July 26, 1966) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City. Life and early career Sachs was born in New York City on July 26, 1966. He grew up in Westport, Connecticut, attending high school at Green ...

. In 2017, Hockley co-curate, with Catherine Morris, ''We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85,'' a show dedicated to female artists of color, and their political and social efforts during

second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. Wh ...

. The show received positive reviews. In 2015, Hockley made

artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly traded company based in Berlin that is listed on t ...

News’s global list of 25 Women Curators Shaking Things Up and she was among

Culture Magazine ''CULTURE Magazine'' is an American monthly magazine covering entertainment and lifestyle trends in the medical cannabis community. Based in Corona, California, it is owned by High Times which also publishes and own several alternative newspaper ...

’s 10 Young Curators to Watch in 2016. In March 2017, the

hired Hockley as an Assistant Curator. Her first undertaking was to help curate “An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections From the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017.” Rujeko Hockley and

Jane Panetta Jane Panetta is a New York-based curator and art historian. Panetta is currently an Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Career Curating Before working at the Whitney, Panetta spent five years in the Painting and Sculpture Dep ...

curated the

2019 Whitney Biennial This is an incomplete list of Whitney Biennial artists selected for the Whitney Biennial exhibitions of contemporary American art, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in 193 ...

. The selections within the 75 artists in the show included primarily female, minority artists from the two coasts in the United States. When Panetta and Hockley were asked about their choice of including mostly younger minority artists, they discussed the many common threads they found among their choices including college debt struggles, gentrification and real estate issues. Hockley serves on the board of Art Matters and Recess.

References

External links

Culture Type - Rujeko HockleyWhitney Biennial 2019 - organized by Jane Panetta, associate curator, and Rujeko Hockley, assistant curator
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hockley, Rujeko Living people American art curators American women curators People from Harare People associated with the Whitney Museum of American Art Year of birth missing (living people) Columbia College (New York) alumni Zimbabwean emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women University of California, San Diego alumni Women art historians