Klaus Biesenbach, Director of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, announced today that Peter Eleey has been appointed as the Curator of P.S.1. Currently Visual Arts Curator at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, a position he has held since 2007, Mr. Eleey will organize exhibitions and public programs at P.S.1, and will oversee the curatorial staff. Additionally, he will work with Mr. Biesenbach and P.S.1's staff and Board of Directors on the development of a long-range plan for the institution. His appointment takes effect on July 1.
"Through his excellent work at the Walker Art Center, and previously in New York at Creative Time, Peter Eleey has emerged as one of the most talented curators of his generation. He is thoughtful and inventive, and has demonstrated a strong committment to artists in his work. I am thrilled to have him join us at this important moment, and know that he will be a great addition to P.S.1," stated Mr. Biesenbach.
As Curator in the Visual Arts department at the Walker Art Center, Mr. Eleey organized the exhibitions The Talent Show (2010), The Quick and the Dead (2009), and Trisha Brown: So That the Audience Does Not Know Whether I Have Stopped Dancing (2008). He has brought to the Walker collection important works by artists Tomma Abts, Paul Chan, Trisha Donnelly, Pierre Huyghe, Mark Manders, Kris Martin and Susan Philipsz, among others, and helped to expand the museum's conceptual holdings with key pieces by Robert Barry, Stanley Brouwn, Stephen Kaltenbach, and Adrian Piper.
Prior to joining the Walker, Mr. Eleey was Curator and Producer at Creative Time, New York from 2002 to 2007, where he organized a wide range of multidisciplinary projects and events, including Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers (2007), which was commissioned jointly with The Museum of Modern Art and co-curated with Mr. Biesenbach. Other major projects included Mike Nelson: A Psychic Vacuum (2007), a site-specific installation at the Essex Street Market co-organized with Nato Thompson; Strange Powers (2006), a group exhibition highlighting works made to have a paranormal effect on the world co-organized with Laura Hoptman; The Plain of Heaven (2005), an exhibition in a vacant meatpacking warehouse inspired by the redesign of the High Line; Jenny Holzer: For the City (2004), a series of airplane banners over the Hudson river and light projections at sites around the New York; and Cai Guo-Qiang's Light Cycle (2003), a pyrotechnic event in Central Park.