The Academy Blog

Corina Larkin is a visual artist, writer and editor. Prior to becoming CUE’s executive director, she worked at the Brooklyn Rail as a managing editor. She also worked as a management consultant for many years, focusing on new market entry strategies and organizational development in the communications and media industries. She holds degrees from Purchase College, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania and SAIS/Johns Hopkins University. Prior to assuming the position of Executive Director, Ms. Larkin served on CUE’s board for eight years.

Jonathan Rider (b. 1983) is an artist, curator, and writer based in New York City. Rider is the Artistic Director at The FLAG Art Foundation, where he has worked since 2014, and has organized solo presentations by artists Kamrooz Aram, Ashley Bickerton, Cynthia Daignault, Nicole Eisenman and Keith Boadwee, Elmgreen & Dragset, Awol Erizku, Genevieve Gaignard, Sam Gilliam, among others, and thematic group exhibitions, including and I will wear you in my heart of heart, The Times, Dime-Store Alchemy, and Drawn Together Again. Previously, he was the Assistant Curator at Art at General from 2011-14. Rider received a BA from Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, in 2005, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, in 2011. His artwork has been shown in recent exhibitions, including Notturno Più, The Pool NYC, Venice, Italy (2019); Microwave X, Josée Bienvenu Gallery, New York, NY (2018); Costante Colore, The Pool NYC, Milan, Italy (2017); Chaos/Control, MW Project Space, New York, NY (2017); among others. His writing has appeared in Art in America.

Photo by Kingsley Ifill

Honor Titus (b. 1989, New York, NY) is a multidisciplinary American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. Painted in a range of luminous jewel tones and suffused with a sense of romance, Titus’s paintings are embedded with nostalgic references to a simpler time. While touring extensively in a punk band and holding poetry readings in New York, he met Raymond Pettibon, whom he assisted prior to working in Dan Colen’s studio. Titus’s first solo exhibition was held at Henry Taylor Gallery in Los Angeles in 2020. His solo exhibition Honor Titus: For Heaven’s Sake was presented at the beginning of 2021 and his work was included in the group exhibition (Nothing But) Flowers at Karma, New York in 2020. He is represented by Timothy Taylor.

Melanie Kress is a curator and writer based in New York. She is the Associate Curator for High Line Art, where since 2014 she has commissioned and presented projects with artists including Maria Thereza Alves, Firelei Báez, Lubaina Himid, Sky Hopinka, Zoe Leonard, Sable Elyse Smith, and Tourmaline, among many others. In 2010 she co-founded the Brooklyn-based project space Concrete Utopia, of which she was Director & Chief Curator. She is currently a Critic at Yale School of Art and holds a BA in Art History and Visual Arts from Barnard College and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Natasha L. Logan is the Deputy Director at Creative Time. Since joining the team in 2016, she has held numerous roles including Project Manager and Director of Programming. She has contributed to several recent large-scale exhibitions, including Duke Riley’s Fly by Night (2016), Pedro Reyes’ Doomocracy (2016), Sophie Calle’s Here Lie the Secrets… (2017), Pledges of Allegiance (2018), and Phil Collins’ Bring Down the Walls (2018).

Before working at Creative Time, Natasha worked alongside respected artists across film, fine art, and interactive technology. She led Hank Willis Thomas’s studio and collaborative initiatives. She managed ongoing projects including Question Bridge and In Search of The Truth (The Truth Booth), as well as national commissions. Her film credits include co-executive producing An Oversimplification of Her Beauty by Terence Nance and transmedia producer for the documentary film American Promise, which earned a 2014 Doc Impact award.

From 2007-2011, Natasha served as the Assistant Director of Career Development at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she met and advised hundreds of emerging artists between NYC and Los Angeles.

Logan is the co-editor of Question Bridge: Black Males in America alongside Dr. Deborah Willis, which was published by Aperture Foundation in 2015. She graduated with a BA in English Literature and African American Studies from the University of Virginia.

Elizabeth Masella is the Senior Public Art Coordinator at NYC Parks. She works with a diverse group of artists, community groups, arts organizations, and government agencies to bring both innovative and traditional public art to parks in New York City’s five boroughs. She has managed over 100 temporary public outdoor art installations and organized several exhibitions for the Arsenal Gallery in Central Park. Elizabeth has her MFA in Art Criticism and Writing from the School of Visual Arts and a BA in Art History and Visual Art from Fordham University.

Dexter Wimberly is an American curator, based in Japan, who has organized exhibitions in galleries and institutions around the world including A Fast, Moving Sky at The Third Line in Dubai, UAE; Derrick Adams: Sanctuary at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; Kenneth Victor Young: Continuum at American University Museum in Washington, DC; Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox at The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA; and Vision & Spirit: African American Art | Works From The Bank Of America Collection at The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, NC. Wimberly’s exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum, and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Kinkade Family Foundation. He is the co-founder of the financial literacy platforms Art World Conference and Art World Learning. Wimberly is also a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan.

Believe Me, 100” x 94”, 2020, wool, cotton

Erin M. Riley is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Erin received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, MA and a MFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA both in Fibers. Riley is represented by P.P.O.W Gallery, New York, NY where she has had solo exhibitions in 2018 and 2021. Riley is a 2021 United States Artist Fellow, is part of the 2021 Academy of Arts & Letters Purchase Prize and was a resident artist at Dieu Donné Workspace Program, The Corporation of Yaddo and MacDowell.

Peter Drake is the Provost at the New York Academy of Art. As a visual artist his work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the US, China and Europe. He actively curates, lectures, and has 27 solo exhibitions to date. His work is held in private, corporate and public collections including the Whitney Museum of Art, Phoenix Museum of Art, MOCA LA, Weatherspoon Art Museum, L.A. County Museum, Microsoft, Kirkland and Ellis and the Progressive Collection among others. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Award, a New York Foundation Fellowship and is a two-time recipient of the Two Trees Cultural Space Subsidy Program Grant for 2016-18 and 2019-22. His Waiting for Toydot, a MTA Arts & Design permanent public art commission for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Massapequa Station opened to the public in 2015 and is seen by over 6,000 commuters daily. Drake maintains a studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn and is represented by Linda Warren Projects.

Allison Ayers is a Partner and Director at Houston-based Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino. Before joining the gallery in 1997 as a marketing advisor, Allison worked in advertising and marketing with Ogilvy and Mather and Hermann Hospital.  In 2000, she became partners with Maria Ines Sicardi and Carlos Bacino and a director of the gallery. Since then, she along with Maira Ines Sicardi, has spearheaded the gallery’s programming, partnering with area universities, independent curators, and international galleries to bring the most important modern and contemporary Latin American artists to the public.  Those efforts have included lectures, book-signings, panel discussions and other activities. In 2012, alongside her partners, Allison coordinated the gallery’s transition to a custom-designed, 6,000-square-foot building, with two gallery spaces and a dedicated research center.

In addition to her work with the gallery, Allison is also an active board member and advisor for numerous Houston and national arts organizations and non-profits.  Those include the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; The University of Texas at Austin, College of Fine Arts Advisory and Director’s Council; The Art Dealers Association of America, New York, NY; the Aurora Picture Show.

Allison graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Art History in 1991. In December 2018, she received a Master in Liberal Arts degree from St. Thomas University in Houston.

David Castillo holds degrees in History and Art History from Yale University and the Angelicum in Rome. Since 2000, he has dealt in important Latin American, European, and American secondary market works. Castillo has held positions at museums, including the Yale University Art Gallery’s American Decorative Arts curatorial department. He continues to assist private clients in building their collections in addition to managing David Castillo (gallery) and has lectured widely on various topics in art.

David Castillo (gallery) opened in 2005 and in an ongoing manner from year to year, the gallery has been named hundreds of times in prominent publications. The gallery’s artists have helped shape the most current vision of contemporary art. Gallery artists have exhibited in nearly twenty recent major Biennials such as Sao Paulo, Kiev, Prospect, Montreal, Cuenca, Busan, and The Whitney Biennial.  Among the gallery’s corporate clients are Deutsche Bank and UBS.

Castillo has placed the work of gallery artists in museum collections, including major institutions such as the The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Guggenheim, NY; The Studio Museum in Harlem; The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and many others.  The gallery’s roster of artists routinely exhibits in major international institutions.  David Castillo (gallery) has participated in art fairs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Berlin, Mexico City, Miami, and Basel, including Frieze New York, Art Basel Miami Beach and The Armory Show.

The gallery has produced more than 130 fine art exhibitions to date. David Castillo cultivates artists with a far-reaching national and international impact on cultural and critical spaces.  These spaces include museums and other institutions, private collections, and, importantly, also discourses on art through art publications and media. The gallery’s artists are now defining the aesthetics and critical ideas of our time.

Jessica Silverman is the founder and CEO of a contemporary art gallery with an international reputation for curating compelling exhibitions, building artists’ careers, and collaborating with collectors who are keen on positive provenance. Her mission is to support artists whose relevance to contemporary culture is such that museums want to understand and embrace their work. For nine years, Silverman sat on the San Francisco Arts Commission where she oversaw the acquisition of public art and has, since then, advised property developers. Silverman recently opened a new gallery space at 621 Grant Avenue (corner of California) in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Sandro Kopp is a painter, based in the Scottish Highlands

Wes Anderson’s recently released film The French Dispatch is about a fictional painter (played by Benicio del Toro) and, among other things, his artistic journey from figuration to abstraction. The 16 artworks featured in the film are real pieces created by Academy alumna Sian Smith MFA 2018, Edith Baudraud and painter Sandro Kopp. Sandro will speak at the Academy about his career and his work on the film on Tuesday, November 10, at 6:30 pm. The talk is free & open to the public, proof of vaccination required for entry. Enjoy these behind the scenes photos of Sian and Sandro at work on set in France!

Dexter Wimberly is an American curator, based in Japan, who has organized exhibitions in galleries and institutions around the world including A Fast, Moving Sky at The Third Line in Dubai, UAE; Derrick Adams: Sanctuary at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City; Kenneth Victor Young: Continuum at American University Museum in Washington, DC; Coffee, Rhum, Sugar & Gold: A Postcolonial Paradox at The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, CA; and Vision & Spirit: African American Art | Works From The Bank Of America Collection at The Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte, NC. Wimberly’s exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times and Artforum, and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and The Kinkade Family Foundation. He is the co-founder of the financial literacy platforms Art World Conference and Art World Learning. Wimberly is also a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art, and the founder and director of the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan.

Roxanne Jackson is a ceramic artist and sculptor living in Brooklyn, NY. Her macabre works are black-humored investigations of the links between transformation, myth and pop-culture. Press for her work includes The New York Times, The New Yorker, The LA Times, Juxtapoz Magazine, Hyperallergic, Forbes, Metal Magazine, The Huffington Post, Artnet, The Observer, Gothamist, Whitehot Magazine, Beautiful Decay, Cool Hunting and Ceramics Monthly, among others. She is the recipient of residencies at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (Japan), the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (NE), Socrates Sculpture Park (NY), Wassaic Project (NY), PLOP (UK), Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts (ME), the Ceramic Center of Berlin (Germany), funded by a Jerome Project Grant, and the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen (China), funded by an NCECA fellowship. Jackson has exhibited widely, showing her work in exhibitions at DUVE Berlin Gallery, Cob Gallery (London), Anonymous Gallery (Mexico City), Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami), Garis and Hahn (LA), Kunstraum Niederösterreich (Vienna) and Untitled Art Fair (Miami Beach) with Richard Heller Gallery. She has recently shown her work in New York City at venues including The Hole, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Ortega y Gasset Projects, SARDINE, Underdonk, Honey Ramka, Regina Rex, Dinner Gallery and SPRING/BREAK Art Fair. She recently had works in the exhibition “Friends and Friends of Friends” at the Schlossmuseum in Linz, Austria, and “Double Vision” – a two person show at The Hole. She looks forward to upcoming shows at JEFF in Marfa, Texas and a residency and exhibition at Lefebvre & Fils in Versailles and Paris, France. Roxanne will present a solo exhibition of her work at Alloche Benias in Athens, Greece next year.