Natasha Becker

Natasha Becker was born in South Africa and has spent the last sixteen years living and working between New York and Cape Town. An expert in contemporary African and African American art, she has curated a number of exhibitions in collaboration with artists, curators, collectors, galleries, museums, and foundations internationally. She recently co-curated two exhibitions, “Perilous Bodies,” and “Radical Love,” at the distinguished Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice to inaugurate their new art gallery in New York (2019). Her past experience includes curating exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery (South Africa), convening public programmes in global art history at the Clark Art Institute, and launching an international video art festival (both Massachusetts, USA). Natasha is one of the co-founders of two collaborative curatorial platforms, ASSEMBLY ROOM (New York) and THE UNDERLINE SHOW (Johannesburg) and was appointed inaugural curator of African art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in December 2020.

CREATIVE DIALOGUE

Art on our Mind Creative Dialogue with South African Curator Natasha Becker and Sharlene Khan on 5 September 2019 at The Point of Order. The event was part of the African Feminisms (Afems) conference 2019: Theorising from the Epicentres of our Agency, at the Wits School of the Arts, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa.

AUDIO: Art on our Mind Creative Dialogue with Natasha Becker

TRANSCRIPT: Art on our Mind Creative Dialogue with Natasha Becker

Find Natasha Becker on Instagram

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Come visit!! It’s the last week to see all the amazing artists and artworks in Radical Love @fordfoundationgallery It’s a visual feast and celebration of love. See you there!!! #socialjustice #contemporaryart #newyorkcity #fordfoundation

A post shared by Natasha Becker (@natasha.becker) on Aug 13, 2019 at 11:31am PDT

Assembly Room New York invited curators to speak about curating in the time of COVID19, watch episode #1 with Natasha Becker online:

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Curating at the time of COVID19 is a series of short, homemade videos, by our fellow independent women curators, discussing curating practices during the lockdown.😷 . We are committed to continuing our mission to create community and to support the work of independent women curators by sharing our stories, our work, and our inspiration in these challenging times. We invite you to enjoy our new online content created by our community of awesome women! Topics include; What does an independent curator do? What do curators think of online exhibitions? What artists, artworks, and exhibitions are curators working on or inspired by? . Our guest for the first episode is Natasha Becker, the co-founder curator of Assembly Room.🎊🎉🎊 . Bio: Natasha was born in South Africa and has spent the last sixteen years living and working between Cape Town and New York. An expert in contemporary African and African American art, she has curated a number of exhibitions in collaboration with artists, curators, collectors, galleries, museums, and foundations in South Africa and the United States. She recently co-curated two exhibitions, “Perilous Bodies,” and “Radical Love,” at the distinguished Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice to inaugurate their new art gallery in New York (2019). Her experience includes curating exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery (South Africa), organizing public programs in global art history at the Clark Art Institute, and launching an international video art festival (both Massachusetts, USA). . More to come. Stay tuned!📡📡📡

A post shared by ASSEMBLY ROOM (@assemblyroomnyc) on Apr 1, 2020 at 4:05pm PDT

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES: Natasha Becker

WORKS by Natasha Becker
CURATORIAL WORK
WRITING
LECTURES, KEYNOTES & TALKS

PRESS AND REVIEWS on Natasha Becker
PRESS AND REVIEWS

Curator’s website and CV

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Writing

Texts by Natasha Becker

MA Thesis

Becker, Natasha (2002) Inside and Outside the Family Album. Making, exhibiting and archiving the photograph in the South African National Gallery and the National Library of South Africa. Univerity of the Western Cape.
Available here

One of the first things that reached me about photography was how a photograph tells a story or stories. This experience is perhaps most common when viewing personal photographs. A few years ago I was looking through a vast number of personal photographs, of a family I knew well, and was struck by how all the photographs (in albums, framed or lying loosely about) were part of a particular family narrative. Even without the storytelling, which accompanied my viewing of the photographs, I could still ‘read’ bits and pieces of the family history (and the broader social, political and cultural histories) in their photographs.

Journal articles and essays

Becker, Natasha (2021) ‘In the Wake of Okwui Enwezor’. NKA: Journal for Contemporary African Art. Special Issue on Curator Okwui Enwezor.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘To Imagine a Future World’. Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue, Present Passing, Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong, China. March 2020.
Book available here

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Forever if Composed of Nows’ Curatorial Essay, exhibition catalogue , A.I.R gallery, New York, NY. February 2020.
Press release PDF

Becker, Natasha (2020) ‘Pushing Through a Public Memorial’. Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. February 2020.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘An Ode to Love’ Curatorial Essay, Ford Foundation Art Gallery, New York, NY. may 2019.
Available here

Becker, Natasha. 2015 ‘Encountering Virginia Chihota’ Exhibition catalogue essay, Tiwani Contemporary: Virginia Chihota. A Thorn In My Flesh (munzwa munyama yangu). October 2015.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2008) ‘Primitivism revisited: After the end of an idea’. African Arts, 41:1, 86-88.
Available here [download pdf here]

Becker, Natasha (2001) ‘The “Lives of Colour” Exhibition. South African National Gallery, September 1999’ Kronos 27 Visual History, 270-291.
Available here [download pdf here]

News Articles

Becker, Natasha (2021) Tschabalala Self with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. March 2021.
Available here

Becker, Natasha (2022) Gary Simmons with Natasha Becker. The Brooklyn Rail. May 2022. Available here

Becker, Natasha (2019) ‘Where Does My Heart Reside?’ Guest Contributor, Brooklyn Rail Critics Page, New York, NY. November 2019.
Available here

WORKS: Natasha Becker – Curatorial Work

Selected exhibitions

2020

A PERFECT STORM
Group Show, Faction Arts Project, New York, NY, February 15 – March 8, 2020
View here

FOREVER IS COMPOSED OF NOWS
Group Show, A.I.R gallery, New York, NY, February 14 – March 15, 2020
View here

2019

GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS
LeAndra LeSeur Solo Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY, October 17 – December 1, 2019
View here

RADICAL LOVE
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/ford-foundation-gallery-radical-love-1612009

PERILOUS BODIES
Group Show, Ford Foundation for Social Justice Art Gallery, New York, NY
View here

INTERIOR LANDSCAPES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
View here

2018

MULTIPLICITIES
Group Show, Assembly Room, New York, NY
https://hyperallergic.com/468273/assembly-room-curatorial-collective/

WHAT CAN BE SEEN
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
View here

2017

DIALOGUES IN DRAWING
Group Show, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
https://www.artsy.net/show/jenkins-johnson-gallery-dialogues-in-drawing#

AMERICANAH
Group Show, Spring/Break Art Show, New York, NY
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-16-curators-watch-springbreak

WEIGHTS & MEASURES
Solo Show and Civic Dialogues, Constitution Hill Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
https://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/justice-under-the-spotlight/

2016

SHIRIN NESHAT: DREAMERS
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa,
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/624

SUE WILLIAMSON: THE PAST LIES AHEAD
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/611

2015

RUBY AMANZE ONYINYECHI: SALT WATER
Solo Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/590

EDGE OF SILENCE
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/573

SPEAKING BACK
Group Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/559