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Virginia Solomon

Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History

Phone
901.678.5317
Email
vsolomon@memphis.edu
Fax
901.678.2735
Office
244E Art & Communication
Office Hours
MW 11:30-5:30
Virginia Solomon

General Idea still Test Tube 1979 General Idea P is for Poodle 1983 LTTR (Lesbians to the Rescue) cover, LTTR 5: Positively Nasty 2006 Ridykeulous cover, Ridykeulous 2006 General Idea cover, FILE Megazine featuring Mr. Peanut visiting Toronto with the New York Corres Sponge Dance School of Vancouver Sharon Hayes performance still, Everything Has Failed! Don't You Think It's Time for Love? 2007 Marcel Dot, winning submission for The 1971 Miss General Idea Pageant 1971 General Idea 1984 General Idea The Boutique from the 1984 Miss General Idea Pageant Pavillion 1980 General Idea AIDS 1987

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Virginia Solomon (B.A. Stanford University, 2004, Studio Art and Feminist Studies; M.A. 2007, Ph.D. 2013, Art History and Gender Studies, University of Southern California) is the assistant professor of Contemporary Art History in the Department of Art at the University of Memphis. Their research interests include contemporary art, curation, gender studies, queer theory, visual culture, subcultures, and alternative forms of politics. Solomon's research has been supported by a Canadian Art Research Fellowship at the National Gallery of Canada and a Helena Rubenstein Critical Studies Fellowship at the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, among others. Their curatorial work includes the exhibition Tainted Love (2009) at the La Mama La Galleria in NYC and Shary Boyle and Emily Duke: The Illuminations Project 2011), realized while serving as the Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Before joining the faculty at UofM, Solomon was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Studies in the School of Art and Design History and Theory at Parsons The New School for Design. Current projects include a book that considers how the work of Canadian artist group General Idea presents a theory of subcultural politics, and a time-based media salon, QUARTZMemphis.

EDUCATION

  • PhD Contemporary Art History, Gender Studies, University of Southern California, 2013
  • MA Art History, University of Southern California, 2007
  • BA Stanford University, 2004

RESEARCH AND AREAS OF INTEREST

  • Contemporary Art, Curating and Exhibition-Making, Queer Theory, Gender Studies, Subcultures, Politics

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

  • 8/2015 – Present Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art History, University of Memphis

PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS

  • 7/2013 – 7/2015 Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Studies, Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
  • 9/2010 – 5/2011 Whitney-Lauder Curatorial Fellow, University of Pennsylvania and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia
  • 8/2007 - 5/2008 Helena Rubenstein Critical Studies Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program

CURATORIAL EXPERIENCE

  • 12/2015 – Founder and director, QUARTZMemphis, a monthly salon for queer time-based art
  • 12/1/2015 Organizing Co-Curator, RADIANT PRESENCE, Art and Communications Building, University of Memphis
  • 4/21/2011 – 8/7/2011 That's How We Escaped: Reflections on Warhol (organizing curator for student exhibition), Project Space, ICA Philadelphia
  • 1/13/2011 – 3/20/2011 Shary Boyle and Emily Duke: The Illuminations Project, Project Space, ICA Philadelphia
  • 12/14/2010 – 2/13/2011 David Wojnarowicz A Fire In My Belly (organizing curator), lobby, ICA Philadelphia
  • 6/4/2009 – 6/28/2009 Tainted Love, co-curated with Steven Lam for Visual AIDS La MaMa La Galleria, 6 E 1st St., NYC

PRESS

AWARDS / HONORS / FELLOWSHIPS

  • 7/2013 – 7/2015 Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Studies, Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
  • 8/2011 – 5/2013 USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Fellowship
  • 9/2010-6/2011 Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
  • 12/2009 – 4/2010 National Gallery of Canada Canadian Art Research Fellow
  • 8/2009 – 12/2009 USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Fellowship
  • Summer 2009 Jewel Gala – Friends of Fine Arts Fellowship
  • Spring 2009 Alternate, Fulbright Fellowship, Canada
  • Spring 2009 First Annual GPSS Poster Symposium, Vice Provost for Graduate Programs Fellowship for Third Prize
  • Spring 2009 Visual Studies Graduate Certificate Travel Grant
  • 9/2007 – 5/2008 Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellow, Whitney Independent Study Program
  • 1/2007 – 8/2007 Luce Dissertation Research Fellowship
  • Spring 2007 Visual Studies Graduate Certificate Travel Grant

TEACHING EXPERIENCE / UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS

  • 1/2016 – 5/2016 Assistant Professor, University of Memphis – Art History 1970-Present
  • 1/2016 – 5/2016 Assistant Professor, University of Memphis – Graduate Art History Methods
  • 8/2015 – 12/2015 Assistant Professor, University of Memphis – High Modernism 1940-1970
  • 8/2015 – 12/2015 Assistant Professor, University of Memphis – Graduate Seminar in the History of Curation and Exhibition-Making
  • 8/2014 – 12/2014 Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – The Politics of Abstraction
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – Integrative Seminar 1, Fake
  • 1/2014 – 5/2014 Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – Queer Art History
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – Integrative Seminar 2, Community Engagement
  • 8/2013 – 12/2013 Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – Objects as History
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Parsons the New School for Design – Critical Reading and Writing 1
  • 9/2010 – 5/2011 Co-Instructor, with Kenneth Goldsmith, Art History, University of Pennsylvania – Spiegel Contemporary Art Freshman Seminar, Contemporary Art and the Art of Curating

PUBLICATIONS (PUBLISHED AND FORTHCOMING)

  • 3/26/2015 Review: Tony Greene: Room of Advances, MAK Center for Art and Architecture 6/18-9/7/2014.
  • 4/2013 "What is Love?: Queer Subcultures and the Political Present," e-flux #44. NYC: e-flux, 2013. 
  • 2/2012 "Conceptualism and Canadada: Art, Politics, and Sexuality at the Halifax/Vancouver Exchange," in Garry Neill Kennedy. The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968-1978. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
  • 3/2011 "Illuminated Politics," brochure for Shary Boyle & Emily Duke: The Illuminations Project. The Project Space at The Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, 1/13/2011-3/27/2011.
  • 6/2009 "LOVE/AIDS/RIOT/LOVE?," with Steven Lam, Exhibition Catalog, Tainted Love. NYC: Visual AIDS, 2009, p 4-5.
  • 9/2008 "Politics of Queer Sociality: Music as Material Metaphor," Exhibition catalog, Farewell to Post-Colonialism: The Third Guangzhou Triennial. Guangzhou: Guangdong Museum of Art, 2008, p 314-317.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

  • 1/2015 – Present Advisory Committee, Urban Art Commission, Memphis, TN
  • 12/8/2015 Guest Critic, Rhodes Final Studio Critiques, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
  • 12/2015 Halle Park Public Artwork Selection Committee, Urban Arts Commission, Memphis
  • 11/2015 Crosstown Arts Studio Residency Selection Committee, Crosstown Arts, Memphis
  • 2/2015 Co-Chair, "Business is the Best Art" with Sarah Hollenberg, Panel at the College Art Association Annual Conference
  • 2/2012 Co-Chair, "Conversation on Affect and Archives" with Tirza Latimer, Queer Caucus for Art Lunchtime Panel at the College Art Association Annual Conference
  • 3/2010-2/2012 Co-Chair, Queer Caucus for Art, subcommittee within the College Art Association, with Darren Miller
  • 2/2010 Co-Chair, "How is Queer Art Relational?" with Robert Summers, Queer Caucus for Art Lunchtime Panel at the College Art Association Annual Conference

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

  • College Art Association