Barbara London
U.S.
Curator of media. She founded the video exhibition and collection programs at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Since the 1970s, she has pioneered in tracking the development of media art from its raw beginnings, and has guided the field to its current position as a seriously collected, sophisticated form of expression. London has followed the evolution of artistic practice, discovering artists and new areas of activity, studied the effects of interdisciplinary collaborations, and identified where breakthroughs have occurred. She has organized more than 120 exhibitions, including one-person shows featuring Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, Steina Vasulka, Joan Jonas, Gary Hill, Mako Idemitsu, Valie Export, and Laurie Anderson. Her thematic projects have included Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto, New Video Japan; New Video from China; Young and Restless; Anime!, Stillness (Michael Snow and Sam Taylor-Wood), Automatic Update, and most recently Looking at Music: Side 2. London pioneered the integration of the Internet as part of curatorial practice. Her recent articles on media have featured Teiji Furuhashi (Art Asia Pacific), Wang Gongxin (Modern Painter), The subject of time as medium (Leonardo Magazine); and essays in monographs devoted to the work of Sam Taylor Wood, Jim Sanborn, Zhang Peili, Song Dong, and Bill Viola.