Carnegie Mellon University
September 28, 2012

Press Release: Carnegie Mellon University’s Astria Suparak, Miller Gallery Director and Curator, Nominated for Prestigious Curatorial Award

Contact: Pam Wigley / 412-268-1047 / pwigley@andrew.cmu.edu

Astria SuparakPITTSBURGH—Astria Suparak, director and curator of Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Gallery, is one of 15 nominees from around the world for the Independent Vision Curatorial Award. The award, established by the Independent Curators International, recognizes individuals for their “exceptional creativity and prescience in their exhibition-making, research, and related writing.”

A 15-member panel of distinguished international curators from institutions including the Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Documenta, the MIT List Visual Arts Center and Performa selected the candidates. The award is given every two years to an early or mid-career curator to support independent practice; the previous recipient is a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. This year’s winner will be named at a Nov. 19 gala in New York City.

The selection panel chose the 2012 nominees based on the strength of their recent exhibitions and projects. Suparak, director of the Miller Gallery since 2008 and a co-curator of the 2011 Pittsburgh Biennial, is in the company of curators from London, Paris, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Beirut and Madrid.  Only three other nominees are from the United States: Jay Sanders, Whitney Museum and the 76th Whitney Biennial, New York; Richard Birkett, Artists Space, New York; and Cesar Garcia, the U.S. commissioner at this year’s Cairo Bienniale, Los Angeles.

Suparak’s time at Carnegie Mellon has marked a significant shift for the Miller Gallery. She has refocused the gallery’s mission to align closely with the university’s mission, supporting  “experimentation that expands the notions of art and culture, providing a forum for engaged conversations about creativity and innovation.” Her programming, including exhibitions, residencies, events and publications, has covered a wide range of timely subjects that reach across university and public interests, such as the fate of abandoned big-box stores; artists working within scientific disciplines; social movement cultures; experimental geography; economics and labor; and sports fan culture. These exhibitions and events have been met with record attendances and positive critical acclaim from the likes of The New York Times, Artforum, the Huffington Post and ABC News. 

Currently, the Miller Gallery is presenting the U.S. premiere of “Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture,” a new exhibition that examines the complexity of today’s interrelated and emerging health problems juxtaposed with a variety of proposed architectural and urban solutions. The exhibition is on view at the Carnegie Mellon location through Feb. 24, 2013. The gallery also is touring an exhibition it produced earlier this year, “Intimate Science,” which looks at artist-initiated research in scientific and technological domains. “Intimate Science” will be opening at Real Art Ways in Connecticut on Nov. 3 and in Southern California and Louisiana next year.

The Miller Gallery is located in the Purnell Center for the Arts on Carnegie Mellon’s Pittsburgh campus. Admission is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.  For more information about the Miller Gallery, visit http://www.cmu.edu/millergallery.

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Pictured above is Astria Suparak, one of 15 nominees from around the world for the Independent Vision Curatorial Award. The award recognizes individuals for their “exceptional creativity and prescience in their exhibition-making, research, and related writing.”