Thursday, August 24, 2023
As part of the AICA-USA 2023 Annual Meeting, a special presentation was given by AICA-USA member Dr. Maika Pollack. Maika presented “Notes from Hawaiʻi: Haoles, Kapa, and Kuleana.”
Maika Pollack is a critic and curator, and for the last four years she has served as Director and Chief Curator at the John Young Museum of Art & University Galleries at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a curator there she has recently organized exhibitions of works by Tadashi Sato, Ken Okiishi, Dorothea Lange, Stephanie Syjuco, Liz Train, and Tetsuo Ochikubo, among others. Her focus on archival projects about Hawaiʻi-born artists, and interest in changing gallery and museum policies to open exhibition opportunities to the living artists of Hawaiʻi, including Native Hawaiian artists, have marked her time at the University of Hawaiʻi. As a critic, she has recently written about art in the Pacific region for Frieze, Aperture, and Artforum. She previously lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY where she co-founded and directed the art gallery SOUTHFIRST from 2000-2018. She also worked at PS1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, NY and earned a BA in art history from Harvard University and a PhD in art history from Princeton University. Staring in the fall she will become Executive Director and Chief Curator at Syracuse University Art Museum.
AICA supports art writers around the world through public programs and membership that includes free access to museums across the globe. Since its formation in 1950, AICA has been committed to elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
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AICA supports arts writers around the world through public programs and membership that offers free access to museums across the globe. AICA-USA represents the largest national section of AICA International with over 450 distinguished critics, curators, scholars, and art historians working throughout the United States. As part of the international organization, we benefit from a global reach in presence. AICA-USA is intent on international communication, elevating the values of art criticism as a discipline, and acting on behalf of the physical and moral defense of works of art.
AICA's membership card is recognized for entrance to museums around the world. Members are invited to attend the annual AICA International Congress, hosted each year by a different member nation, and the AICA-USA annual meeting.
Every fall, in cooperation with the New School's Vera List Center for Art and Politics, AICA-USA presents a Distinguished Critic Lecture.
Organized in collaboration with CUE Art Foundation, this program matches emerging critics with experienced AICA-USA members who guide them through the process of writing a catalogue essay.
A partnership between The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and AICA-USA that gives art writers the opportunity to strengthen their work through one-on-one consultations with leading art critics.