Artists Space

Arnold J. Kemp (b. 1968) is a visual artist, writer, and educator who previously was an associate curator at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from 1993 – 2003. During his curatorial tenure Kemp created opportunities for solo shows for influential artists such as Ellen Gallagher, Tracey Moffat, Fred Wilson and Mark Dion. He also worked with artists such as David Hammons, Octavia Butler, Sun Ra Research, Kerry James Marshall, Bruce Conner, John Baldessari and others in accomplished group exhibitions. As an artist Kemp engages in a multidisciplinary practice that extends beyond the formal gallery system by taking the form of talks, performances, limited-edition artist’s books, and collaborations. In the same spirit Kemp creates art works in various formats, for example, writing, painting, performance, video and sculpture. His works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Portland Art Museum, the Schneider Museum of Art, the Tacoma Art Museum, The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, the Hammer Art Museum, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar and The Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection. Recent exhibitions include solo presentations at the Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago; M. LeBlanc, Chicago; Martos Gallery, New York; JOAN, Los Angeles; Biquini Wax, Mexico City, Mexico; and Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME.