Rebecca McGrew
Curator in Residence

Curator and art historian Rebecca McGrew worked on several research projects during her residency in Spoleto. As president of the Claire Falkenstein Foundation she traveled to Florence and Venice to meet with collectors and curators about Falkenstein’s time in Italy to explore future exhibition plans. A second project expanded her work with conceptual and feminist artist Mary Kelly to develop an exhibition proposal that investigates how we think about gender, identity, and historical memory. McGrew focused her research on Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1973-78) as a way to extend this essential legacy of foundational analysis and critical thought to her equally influential studio art practice, art objects, and archival materials. McGrew also conducted deep reading for her Peering into the Abyss: Glissant, Goya, and Contemporary Art project (with colleagues Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis).

While in Spoleto, she read Glissant’s Poetics of Relation (1990) and Caribbean Discourse (1989) and Selene Wendt’s Beyond the Door of No Return (2021). She discovered a key text in the Mahler Library, Hans Ulrich Obrist’s and Asad Raza’s Mondialité or the Archipelagos of Édouard Glissant (2017). Lastly, McGrew loved the artistic experiments and early wall drawings of Sol LeWitt in his studio and the Torre Bonomo in Spoleto and she continues to consider how this insight into the creative artistic process provides inspiration for future creative projects.

Rebecca McGrew is a curator, art historian, writer, and arts professional who specialises in contemporary art. McGrew is the recipient of a 2023–24 Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship with colleagues Manthia Diawara (writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, and professor of comparative literature and film at New York University) and Terri Geis (associate professor of art and co-director of the MFA program of art and media at New York University Abu Dhabi). Together, they are conceiving the exhibition and publication Peering into the Abyss: Glissant, Goya, and Contemporary Art. The project examines the deep confluences and inspirations that circulate between the writings of Edouard Glissant, the art of Francisco de Goya, and the work of contemporary artists from Africa, the Arab World, and their diasporas.

Acknowledged as a leader in the curatorial field, McGrew has organized numerous monographic and thematic exhibitions that brought attention to diverse underrecognized artists. Her work emphasizes collaboration with artists and the exploration of artistic strategies that challenge prevailing narratives. From highlighting pivotal conceptual, feminist, and performance artists in the late twentieth century in Southern California, to creating a dialogue with emerging artists from Hiroshima to Mexico City to Abu Dhabi, McGrew believes that thinking critically alongside artists yields the most dynamic exhibitions, publications, and programs.

Claire Falkenstein (1908–1997) was a sculptor, painter, printmaker, jewellery designer, and teacher, who was most recognised for her often large-scale abstract metal and glass public sculptures. She was one of America’s most experimental and productive artists of the 20th century.