Johanna Burton

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Johanna Burton
Born
Johanna Beth Burton

1971 or 1972 (age 52–53)
Reno, Nevada
Occupation(s)Art historian, critic, curator, museum director
EmployerMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
SpouseTim Griffin

Johanna Beth Burton is an American art historian, critic, and curator who has been the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles since 2021. She was director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University from 2018 to 2021.

Early life and education[edit]

Johanna Beth Burton was born in 1971 or 1972,[1][2] and she grew up in Lemmon Valley, Nevada, near Reno.[3] She was named after the Bob Dylan song "Visions of Johanna".[3] She recalls growing up in a "pretty unconventional family" in a relatively low-income area.[3] Her parents were both artists—her father was a musician and her mother was a painter—and they owned horses and dogs.[3] She spent her childhood horseback riding with her mother along with certain activities suited for adults, such as learning to install drywall or work with plumbing, and also expressed an early curiosity in feminist ideas, especially feminist art.[3]

Burton studied at Hug High School in Reno.[4][better source needed] She obtained a bachelor's degree at the University of Nevada, Reno in 1997, becoming the first student from the school to graduate with a degree in art history.[2][5] She then moved to New York to study at SUNY Stony Brook.[3] She earned master's degrees from SUNY Stony Brook, New York University, and Princeton University.[6][3] At Princeton, she studied with art critic Hal Foster.[5] She wrote art criticism through her studies and early roles in intern and adjunct positions.[3]

Career[edit]

Burton was a curatorial fellow at the New Museum in New York City in 2002.[7] She served as associate director and a faculty member of the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program from 2008 to 2010.[7] From 2010 to 2013, she was director of the graduate program at the Bard College's Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture, after which she continued to serve as a faculty member.[7][8] Her position at Bard College ended in a group show called "Anti-Establishment", featuring artists who, in her words, work with "novel collective relationships and emergent models of engaged citizenship."[7][9] The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation awarded her a $150,000 grant in 2012 to support her exhibition "Slow Dance".[10] She curated a 2011 exhibition on Sherrie Levine at the Whitney Museum, and with curator Anne Ellegood, she guest-curated a 2014 exhibition at the Hammer Museum on critique and appropriation.[6][11] She also curated exhibitions for artists Simone Leigh and Haim Steinbach.[12]

In 2013, Burton returned to the New Museum to become director and curator of its education and public programs, succeeding Eungie Joo [Wikidata].[7] She was curator of the 2017 exhibition "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon", which features work by 40 artists of different generations which explores gender beyond the concepts of "male" and "female" in the gender binary.[13][5] The New York Times described it as the largest show at a major museum to explore gender fluidity.[13]

The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University named Burton as its director in 2018, following the departure of Sherri Geldin [Wikidata].[14] She was selected as a 2019 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellowship.[15] In late 2021, she was named executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Burton was to lead the MOCA with museum director Klaus Biesenbach, but she was named director two weeks later when Biesenbach quit the museum.[16]

Personal life[edit]

Burton is married to Tim Griffin, former editor-in-chief of Artforum magazine and a former executive director and curator of The Kitchen in New York.[17][18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Nagourney, Adam; Pogrebin, Robin (April 11, 2022). "After Upheaval, MOCA Bets on Johanna Burton to Bring Stability". The New York Times. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "University of Nevada, Reno Graduation". Reno Gazette-Journal. May 18, 1997. p. 28. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Fischer, Jim (April 3, 2019). "Cover: Johanna Burton steps into a leading role as new director of the Wexner Center". Columbus Monthly. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  4. ^ Turner, Tracey (June 20, 1990). "People". Reno Gazette-Journal. p. 49. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b c Roffino, Sara (December 14, 2017). "New Museum Curator Johanna Burton Puts Theory into Practice with "Trigger"". Cultured. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Boucher, Brian (October 10, 2012). "Johanna Burton to Join New Museum". ARTnews. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d e Russeth, Andrew (October 9, 2012). "Back to the New: New Museum Hires Johanna Burton as Director and Curator of Education". The New York Observer. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  8. ^ "College welcomes director of graduate program". Poughkeepsie Journal. March 29, 2013. p. B6. Retrieved July 6, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Johnson, Ken (July 5, 2012). "Art Begetting Art, and Social Commentary, Too". The New York Times. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  10. ^ Boucher, Brian (November 6, 2012). "Burton Among Recipients of Tremaine Foundation Grants". ARTnews. Retrieved May 16, 2022.
  11. ^ Vankin, Deborah (September 2, 2021). "MOCA appoints an executive director to co-run the museum". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  12. ^ Dafoe, Taylor (September 2, 2021). "L.A. MOCA Names Johanna Burton Executive Director, Creating a New Position That Splits Duties With Klaus Biesenbach". Artnet News. Retrieved August 16, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Sheets, Hilarie M. (September 15, 2017). "Gender-Fluid Artists Come Out of the Gray Zone". The New York Times. Retrieved August 12, 2023.
  14. ^ Issawi, Danya (November 28, 2018). "Wexner Center for the Arts Names a New Director, From New York". The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2021.
  15. ^ "New York's Center for Curatorial Leadership Announces 2019 Fellows". Artforum. November 1, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2023.
  16. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (September 15, 2021). "Johanna Burton Is Designated to Lead Los Angeles Museum". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  17. ^ Kenney, Nancy (September 30, 2020). "MoMA PS1 and the Kitchen announce key leaders' departures". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
  18. ^ Miller, M. H. (May 24, 2011). "Tim Griffin's Second Act". The New York Observer. Retrieved March 22, 2021.
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