Bio
Meagan Atiyeh (left) & Elizabeth Spavento (right) on site at ALL RISE
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I am a curator and artist living in Bakersfield, CA and Buffalo, NY. Together with Jared Haug and Meg Hahn, I started a collective called Border Patrol that examines the relationship between contemporary art and corporate aesthetics. Border Patrol has staged exhibitions and events in a former dentist's office, burrito shop, shopping mall, and cemetery.
From 2016 - 2019 I served as the Visual Arts Programmer at SPACE in Portland, ME where I curated exhibitions, oversaw the Kindling Fund Grant as part of the Warhol Foundation's regranting network, and ran a residency program dedicated to highlighting the contributions of queer artists and artists of color. From 2015 - 2016, I co-curated ALL RISE with Meagan Atiyeh, a two-year temporary public art program for an empty acre of land in downtown Seattle. Americans for the Arts Public Art Network recognized ALL RISE as one of the nation's outstanding public art projects two years in a row. Previous curatorial projects include exhibitions with Disjecta Contemporary Art Center (Portland, OR), Open Source Gallery (New York, NY), and Interstitial Gallery (Seattle, WA). Most recently I served as the Executive Director of the Arts Council of Kern where I helped raise over $2 million in support for its programs in less than one year. I am a 2023-2024 Creative Corps Fellow with 18th Street Arts Center and the California Arts Council. I am a recipient of an Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Project Grant; and Alliance for California Traditional Arts Living Cultures Grant; and I have been awarded residencies with Iris Project (Los Angeles, CA); ACRE (Steuben, WI); and the Centre for the Study of Substructured Loss (London, England). I have lectured about curatorial practice and artist-centered systems at institutions such as Alfred State University, the Maine College of Art, the Portland Museum of Art, and Henry Art Gallery. I have been a juror and panelist for the Brink Award, Creative Time and Charlotte Street Foundation, among others. |
Statement
Resisting reductive definitions of artistic labor, the work that I do exists at the intersection of contemporary art, public policy, and grassroots organizing. I favor practices that scrutinize systems of power and am interested in creating new models for presenting artists' work. Collaboration is at the heart of what I do, whether making my own art or building a platform for others through generative exhibitions and performances. Mostly, I curate.
In 2017 I started a curatorial collective called Border Patrol with Meg Hahn and Jared Haug. Our ongoing public art project R.I.P. examines the politics and aesthetics of death. Since 2020 I have been collaborating with detainees at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center on multiple exhibitions. Our first publication, Voices in the Shadow, will premiere at SPACE in Portland, ME on October 1, 2021 as part of a statewide consortium called Freedom and Captivity.
In 2017 I started a curatorial collective called Border Patrol with Meg Hahn and Jared Haug. Our ongoing public art project R.I.P. examines the politics and aesthetics of death. Since 2020 I have been collaborating with detainees at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center on multiple exhibitions. Our first publication, Voices in the Shadow, will premiere at SPACE in Portland, ME on October 1, 2021 as part of a statewide consortium called Freedom and Captivity.