Recent weeks have seen major international moves for young Canadian curators. Former Blackwood Gallery curator Séamus Kealy has been named director of the Salzburger Kunstverein in Austria, while Toronto-born curator Aileen Burns joins Swedish curator Johan Lundh as co-director of the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia. Kealy vacates his position as director and curator at The Model in Sligo, Ireland; Burns and Lundh move from their shared role as directors/curators at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Kealy, who was born in Vanguard, Saskatchewan, and holds an MA in Critical Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia, was a well-known figure on the Toronto art scene in the mid-2000s. As director and curator at the University of Toronto’s Blackwood Gallery in Mississauga from 2005 to 2008, he played a significant role in confirming the institutional satellite space as a viable venue for leading-edge exhibition making, including notable group shows such as “18: Beckett” and “Signals in the Dark: Art in the Shadow of War” as well as solo exhibitions by Isabelle Pauwels, Stéphane Gilot and Etienne Zack. His tenure at The Model included exhibitions by Rabih Mroué, Omer Fast, Harun Farocki and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, as well as a 2009 “Reverse Pedagogy” artist residency/exhibition project featuring Canadian artists Paul Butler, Dean Baldwin, Katie Bethune-Leaman, Stéphane Gilot and Swintak. Currently at work on a touring exhibition of works by Stan Douglas, Kealy takes up his post in Salzburg in January.
Burns and Lundh both have strong ties to the Canadian art scene, having taken part in residencies and produced independent curatorial projects at various galleries and institutions such as the Banff Centre, Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and Western Front. They have worked collaboratively at the CCA since 2011, a stint that has included exhibitions of works by Goldin + Senneby, Raqs Media Collective and Haegue Yang. The duo recently served as part of the curatorial team for the 2013 Turner Prize exhibition, which opened in Derry-Londonderry in October. They begin work in Brisbane in January.
