Scott Watson (born 1950) is a Canadian curator, writer, and researcher based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Watson was the Director/Curator of the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...

at the University of British Columbia from 1995 to 2021. As faculty in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia, he helped initiate the Critical Curatorial Studies program at UBC in September 2002. Through his research and publications, he has acted as a champion of contemporary Vancouver artists.

Career

Watson was trained in art history and received his BA and MA at UBC. He was initially a fiction writer and published two books, "Stories" (1974) and "Platonic Love" (1981). In 1980, he was hired by the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1985, he curated the ''Young Romantics'' painting exhibition and in 1990, published a monograph on

Jack Shadbolt Jack Leonard Shadbolt, (February 4, 1909 November 22, 1998) was a Canadian painter. Early life Born in Shoeburyness, England, Shadbolt came to Canada with his parents in April 1911. He was raised in Victoria, British Columbia. He studied at t ...

. In 1989, he was hired by the University of British Columbia (UBC) gallery. In 1995, he became the first director/curator of the gallery. He retired in 2021.

Curatorial projects and research

Watson's research and curation focuses primarily around topics related to contemporary art, art theory and criticism, twentieth-century art history, and curatorial studies. His curatorial projects have appeared across Canada including at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and Artspeak in Vancouver and internationally in Berlin,

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

, and London.

Notable curatorial projects

* ''Queer Landscapes'' (1991) at Artspeak * ''Thrown: Influences and Intentions'' (2004) of West Coast Ceramics * Rebecca Belmore: ''Fountain'' (2005) for the Venice Biennale Canadian Pavilion * ''Intertidal: Vancouver art & artists'' (2005-2006) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp * Stan Douglas: ''Inconsolable Memories'' (2005-2006) at the Tate Modern * ''Exponential Future'' (2008) at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery * ''Jack Shadbolt: Underpinnings'' (2009) at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery * ''Mark Boulos'' (2010), a solo exhibition at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery * ''Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry'' (2012) at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery * ''Image Bank'' (2019) at the

KW Institute for Contemporary Art The KW Institute for Contemporary Art (also known as Kunst-Werke) is a contemporary art institution located in Auguststraße 69 in Berlin-Mitte, Germany. Klaus Biesenbach was the founding director of KW; the current director is Krist Gruijthuijsen ...

Selected publications

* * * *

Awards and honours

* an invitation to the UBC Chancellor's Circle (2005). * UBC Dorothy Somerset Award for Performance Development in the Visual and Performing Arts (2005) * Alvin Balkind Award for Creative Curatorship in British Columbia Arts (2008) * Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2010)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Scott Living people 1950 births Canadian art curators Academic staff of the University of British Columbia 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian male non-fiction writers