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| Grant Kester | |
|---|---|
| Name | Grant Kester |
| Birth date | 1959 |
| Occupation | Art historian, critic, curator, educator |
| Alma mater | University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, Berkeley |
| Notable works | Conversations in Public; The One and the Many |
| Awards | (see Awards and recognition) |
Grant Kester is an American art historian, critic, curator, and educator known for his writings on contemporary art, dialogical practices, and the politics of representation. He has articulated influential theories about collaborative art, participatory practices, and the ethics of artistic exchange, engaging with artists, theorists, and institutions across the United States and Europe. His work intersects debates in contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory and has been cited in discussions of socially engaged art, community practice, and postcolonial aesthetics.
Kester was raised in California and completed undergraduate studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz before pursuing graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley he studied art history and critical theory under faculty affiliated with intellectual currents linked to Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. His doctoral research brought him into contact with archival materials and contemporary art practices prevalent in the late 20th century, intersecting debates associated with Postmodernism, Feminist art, and Postcolonialism.
Kester has held faculty appointments at several institutions, teaching in departments and programs connected to Art History, Visual Culture, and Critical Theory. He has served on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the University of California, Los Angeles, and programs affiliated with the Graduate Center, CUNY and various European universities. His pedagogical work brought him into collaboration with curators and artists associated with institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, and the Getty Research Institute, and his seminars engaged with texts by scholars like Hal Foster, Boris Groys, and T.J. Demos.
Although primarily known as a critic and historian, Kester has participated in and facilitated collaborative projects with artists and community groups. He has written extensively about dialogical and participatory projects by artists such as Suzanne Lacy, Tania Bruguera, Theaster Gates, Lygia Clark, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Kester's analyses emphasize practices resonant with institutions like the Serpentine Galleries and the Walker Art Center and with initiatives connected to organizations including Creative Time, Public Art Fund, and Studio Museum in Harlem. His engagement with artistic collaborations draws on precedents set by collectives such as Guerrilla Girls, Community Arts Network, and projects located in urban contexts like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Barcelona.
Kester is author of several influential books and essays that have shaped contemporary discourse about dialogical art and social practice. His notable books include Conversations in Public (2004), The One and the Many (2011), and The Ends of the Earth (contributions and edited volumes). In Conversations in Public he contrasts participatory practices exemplified by Rick Lowe and Mel Chin with relational aesthetics associated with Nicolas Bourriaud, framing debates alongside writings by Béatrice Galinon-Mélénec and Claire Bishop. The One and the Many develops theoretical distinctions between agonistic and consensual models of participation, engaging philosophers and theorists such as Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Chantal Mouffe. His essays appear in journals and edited volumes alongside scholars from Oxford University Press, MIT Press, and Duke University Press, and his work is frequently juxtaposed with that of critics like Grant H. Kester (note: same name but distinct in contexts), Nicolas Bourriaud, and Claire Bishop in symposia at venues including Princeton University and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Kester has curated exhibitions and contributed essays and catalogues for projects at museums and alternative spaces. His curatorial projects have intersected with exhibitions at the Henry Art Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Hammer Museum, and he has contributed to catalogues for biennials such as the Venice Biennale and the Istanbul Biennial. He has organized symposia and programs in collaboration with curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Hayward Gallery. These projects often foreground socially engaged practices and site-specific work by artists including Pablo Helguera, Mark Bradford, Doris Salcedo, and Kara Walker.
Kester's scholarship and curatorial activities have been recognized with fellowships and honors from institutions such as the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. He has received research fellowships tied to the Getty Research Institute and grants from arts organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and regional arts councils. His books have been the subject of panel discussions at conferences hosted by the College Art Association, the Modern Language Association, and major museums, and his work is widely cited in bibliographies on contemporary art theory, social practice, and visual culture.
Category:American art historians Category:Contemporary art critics