Image: Photo Credit Addison Doty, Artist: Munson Hunt, Reclaimation Installation, CCA, Curated by Craig Anderson

Work

Craig Anderson has nearly thirty years of experience in the contemporary arts. His background reflects time as an installations specialist, museum administrator, curator, years of teaching art at the college level and his own on-going studio practice. All of which give him insights into working as a curator of contemporary exhibitions, an arts advisor to clients, a mentor to artists and a consultant to collectors. His museum projects, curatorial work, advising and consulting clients cover a broad swath of the contemporary arts. His financial experience related to the arts includes fundraising, fiscal year and departmental budgeting, as well as museum installations and project management. As the Director of Exhibits Central for the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, he over saw a $1.2 M budget for a permanent historical exhibition focused on El Camino Real.

While directing the Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Anderson curated a number of solo and two-artist exhibitions. Arrhythmic Visions, an exhibition of current works by Jamie Hamiltion and Alison Keogh received strong reviews and regional attention.  Munson Hunt’s starkly beautiful sculptural exhibition Reclamation called attention to artistic and ecological issues, while Mokha Laget’s exhibition of sculptural paintings entitled CRUX and George O. Jackson’s elegant photographic images in Calaveras Resplandecientes, were also very significant exhibitions and critically well received.  Anderson also co-curated and installed 18 Days -100 New Mexico Women in the Arts, a collaboration with three outstanding women jurors (Mary Kershaw, Director, NM Museum of Art; Jackie M, Director of Education, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and Barbara Tyner, Independent Art Historian) and members of the New Mexico Committee of The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.

The immensely popular Meow Wolf installation at CCA co-curated with that artist's collective andentitled The Due Return was extended for a month in the summer of 2011 and set a CCA attendance record. Public programming during The Due Return included, rock concerts, a Cabaret Bar and a night of performances by Santa Fe Opera Apprentices. This exhibition was a sea change for Meow Wolf and is well documented by YouTube episodes, QR codes and an exhibition catalog.

Previously, in 2006 Anderson had curated and collaboratively installed the group KeepAdding’s ground breaking exhibition WREKAGE. As with many endeavors, these were all large and comprehensive projects involving amazing contributions by institutional staff members, contract professionals and volunteers. Teamwork has always been the essence of success. Many thanks go to the numerous remarkable individuals who played key roles in making these and many other projects reflected here a success.  

Anderson curated

A collaboration with the emerging artists SCUBA on an installation at a Baca Street Railyard Warehouse in Santa Fe entitled Inside the Outside was mesmerizing to viewers and can be seen on Vimeo. 

Perspective

Anderson has consulted with the McKnight Foundation regarding annual awards to artists, and has appeared on two panels sponsored by New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts. He mentors, advises and represents artists and collectors and also writes occasionally on the arts and culture. Recent posts include an essay on the Patrick Cariou-Richard Prince and Gagosian Gallery lawsuit on Photoeye Blog and an interview with Louis Grachos in the summer 2014 issue of TREND magazine.

Anderson’s independent projects as an arts advisor have included consulting and installing a private contemporary painting collection in Malibu, CA, installing the visually stunning Cornelia Parker sculptural work entitled “Mass, Colder, Darker Matter” for the Phoenix Art Museum on two occasions. More recently Anderson advised the California photographer Sol Hill regarding his exhibition “Signal from Noise” at the LEICA Gallery in West Hollywood, LA; Anderson also Curated and with Hill oversaw the installation Hill's 2014 Exhibition "Suspicious Privacy", in a Wynnwood Warehouse during Art Basel Miami.

Anderson’s on-going 2015 involvements have included advising the well-known painter, printmaker, sculptor and public projects artist Stuart Nielsen, who works out of Minneapolis. Anderson has also advised Artist and Printmaker Marina Brownlow, Sculptor Laird Hoveland and Artist David Rudolph regarding an on-going project in LA.

Anderson Arts LLC has been advising and working with John and Sherry at Gallery 901 in Santa Fe throughout 2015.

Anderson supports New Mexico Lawyers for the Arts, and its Director Talia Kosh, recognizing the outstanding work NMLFA has done over the years. 

Exhibition Installations with Contemporary Artists and Curators