October, 2016
We are proud to introduce our “Alumni Updates” for October, 2016. Thank you to who contributed. We will be asking for updates quarterly regarding new professional positions and promotions, new businesses launched, new articles and books published and other significant personal events that happened within the last 12 months*.
If you would like to contribute to our next edition, please feel free to send us your update following the same format to a.bochi@sia.edu.
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Aleksandra Artamonovskaja
Masters of Art Business, London, 2015
Aleksandra is part of the international team behind launching the new .ART domain name - the exclusive domain name for the Art World. First names will be released to a carefully selected group of top level art institutions and professionals globally, announced this October 2016.
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Paulina Bebecka
Masters of Contemporary Art, London, 2007
Paulina is the director of Postmasters Gallery in New York City. This year she has curated a traveling exhibition this one is smaller than this one. The show traveled from New York City, where it was shown at Postmasters Gallery to Istanbul, Turkey and just recently to Vienna, Austria. The show was reviewed extensively including by the New York Times, artnet, artinfo, and in the international press. Furthermore she is the co-founder of +ArtApp, an organization dedicated to research, incubation and support of the nascent Art App movement and arts-centered apps worldwide. The organization garnered the support of The Andy Warhol Museum, Phillips, Kickstarter, DeviantArt, Eyebeam, NEW INC, ArtStack, ZKM, Generate, Artspace, Vango, Electric Objects and many more artists, art professionals and art organizations.
Valerie Blair
Masters of Photography, London, 2007
After nearly ten years as an artist liaison and sales associate at Gagosian Gallery, London, Valerie has joined Marian Goodman Gallery, London as a director.
Nicole L. Bray
Masters of Contemporary Art, New York, 2014
Nicole founded the art consultancy, Mercer Contemporary in 2015, which focuses on curating and managing collections for both private and corporate clients in New York, Los Angeles and London. She was also the recipient of the 2015 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Emerging Curator Award.
Christiana Bromberg
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2012
As of July, Christiana Bromberg is now AVP, Head of Client Services at Christie's. Before this move, Christiana was Senior Manager of Client Services at Sotheby's New York.
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Teresa Canepa
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2000
Teresa is an independent researcher and lecturer in Chinese and Japanese export art. She completed a PhD in Art History at Leiden University, The Netherlands in November 2015. Her PhD dissertation, 'Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer: China and Japan and their trade in Western Europe and the New World, 1500-1644', will be published in November 2016. For more information or to order the book see the publisher's website Paul Holberton Publishing.
Ashley Cecil
Masters of Art Business, London, 2011
Ashley is currently serving as an artist in residence at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. This is a six month, grant-funded post that entails creating 2D artwork that depicts the museum’s specimen collections and visualizes scientific research conducted by CMNH scientists. Follow Ashley's project updates on her blog.
Minjin Chae
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2011
Minjin has worked as an art advisor for private and corporate collectors in Seoul after graduation. She founded her own art advisory firm, Perspectrum Art Advisory, in 2013 based in Seoul.
Laura Cheung
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2011
Laura has started a home décor brand LALA CURIO in reviving traditional artisanship for the contemporary living. Her company specialises in Cloisonné, using the ancient imperial technique translating into modern tiles, hand-painted wallpaper on silk with embroidered embellishments and many more accessories & accent furnishings.
Elizabeth (Ellie) Holden Clark
Masters of Art Business, Los Angeles, 2014
Ellie is now working as the Program Associate for the Pew Fellowships in the Arts department at Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in Philadelphia, PA.
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Ashley Devenish Robinson
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London 2010
Ashley is the newly appointed Director of the BridgeLab Career Center at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. PNCA is a highly selective art university with a rigorous curriculum, offering bachelor's and master's degree in art and design. Ashley works to bring students and the business community together, seeking opportunities and experiences for creative professionals.
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Brittany Allene Eames
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2013
Brittany joined Ahlers & Ogletree Auction Gallery as a Fine Art Cataloguer in 2016 after three years in the Manhattan art scene where she worked in both the appraisal and auction industries. She is a USPAP-Certified Personal Property Appraiser with a history of working on major artist estate and museum collection appraisals. She has professional experience with major museums, appraisal firms and auction houses including The Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice, IT), O'Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc. (New York, NY) and Heritage Auctions (New York, NY).
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Bálint Ferenczy
Masters of Photography, London, 2014
Bálint is currently Collections and Exhibition Loans Specialist at Vastari Group, where he helps collectors connect with museum curators.The primary and secondary market experience he gained working at Sotheby’s, several galleries and while on the curatorial board of the Jozsef Pecsi Photography Grant, fills him with confidence to advise collectors about what their collections strategically need. He is a regular consultant and researcher at the ArtGuideEast Magazine, focusing on the Central and Eastern European region.
Katie Ferguson
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2011
Katie is currently the Human Resources Administrator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young and Legion of Honor). She is always happy to speak with alumni about employment in the San Francisco area and specifically at the Fine Arts Museums.
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Iona Goldie-Scot
Masters in Art Business, London, 2015
Iona is currently pursuing a PhD at Maastricht University, within the research program ‘New Approaches in the Conservation of Contemporary Art’ (NACCA), a Marie Curie Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission.
Lucy Gregory
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2010
After graduating from Sotheby’s Institute in 2010, Lucy spent five years working in the silver and picture departments at Bonhams, New Bond Street and Knightsbridge. In February 2016, she accepted a new role as Picture Specialist with Dreweatts & Bloomsbury. Now based in Newbury, she still makes regular trips to the Capital in a professional and social capacity. Lucy can be reached via her LinkedIn page.
Whitney Godfrey-Dardik
Masters of Fine and Decoratives Art, London, 2011
Whitney lives in New York, NY and has worked at design gallery, R & Company, as the Director for the past two years.
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Marc Hajjar
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2013
Marc continues to work at the Winston Art Group managing their auction and private sales.
Allison Hawkins VanDenend
Masters of Contemporary Design, London, 2011
After working as the Assistant Director of Development at the University of Florida's Harn Museum of Art for 3 years, Allison was recently appointed Director of Black C Art Gallery in Gainesville, FL.
Erika Hirugami
Masters of Art Business, Los Angeles, 2015
Erika recently worked on Current:LA Public art Biennial courtesy of the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles. Her latest article Big Data and the future of Museums was recently published by the California Association of Museums. As CuratorLove reaches its first anniversary, Erika’s latest book Birth of a Global Empire has been accepted into Barnes and Noble for distribution. Furthermore, she has accepted a fellowship to represent her art district at Arts for LA this upcoming year.
Zhi Huang
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2015
Zhi is currently a Specialist at Huayuan International and the event organizer of the HY Salon program. Huayuan Art is an art foundation based in New York, driven and inspired by traditional East Asian art and culture, aims to share the cultural treasures of the Silk Road and East Asian with the world.
Kate Hughes
Masters of American Fine and Decorative Art, New York, 2014
After a successful summer spent at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem, NC, Kate will be presenting her most recent research, "A Vessel of Memory: Thomas Chandler's Eastern Shore Landscape," at the upcoming October 2016 MESDA conference on southern ceramics as well as at the 2017 Colonial Williamsburg Antiques Forum in February.
www.history.org
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Katharine James Fulton-Peebles
Masters of Art in Art Business, London, 2013
Katharine continues to hold her position of Gallery Associate at Crown Point Press, San Francisco, CA
Laura C. Jenkins
Master of Arts, Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2016
Laura is currently working as Research Fellow with The Preservation Society of Newport County in Newport, Rhode Island, researching luxury bathroom design and technology in America between ca. 1890 and ca. 1910.
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Melanie Kimmelman
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2013
Melanie has been working at David Zwirner in New York for over three years. She manages all events and coordinates publicity and promotion for David Zwirner Books, the gallery's stand-alone publishing house.
Valerie Kohler-Regel
Masters of Contemporary Design, London, 2011
Valerie is currently Workshop and Collection Coordinator for the British Council Visual Arts department, which promotes the achievements of the UK's best artists abroad. The Visual Arts department includes a major art collection (the British Council Collection); a professional library with extensive coverage of developments in the British art of the 20th and 21st century; the British Pavilion in Venice; and a state-of-the-art Workshop.
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Bharti Lalwani
Masters of Contemporary Art, Singapore, 2009
Bharti, working as an art critic, recently wrote a critique on the new National Gallery Singapore which went viral. It was a catalyst for debate not just within closeted academic circles but more pertinently, sparked discourse in the public domain.
In relation to this theme, she has moderated two panels at Vienna Contemporary:
Public Relations: Institutions and their Audiences and Public Speech: Grounds for Contestation.
Catherine Laraia
Masters of American Fine and Decorative Art, New York, 2010
Catherine is the Collections Exhibitions Coordinator at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago.
Megan Leckie
Masters of Art Business, London, 2007
As of Jan 2016, Megan joined Art Basel and has been appointed Regional Head of VIP Relations, Asia. She was previously Gallery Director of Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai for 8 years.
Melinda Lee
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2015
Melinda is currently the Cataloguer at Dynasty Auctions and a gallery assistant at Christie's in New York.
Seulki Lee
Masters of Art Business, London, 2009
Seulki is working at an asset management company as an art advisor in Seoul for over one year.
Avie Linden
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2013
Avie is now the Registrar at Hammer Galleries.
Stephanie Loria
Masters of Art Business, London, 2013
Stephanie joined Sotheby's in April 2016. She works in the Chicago office.
Sara Lurie
Masters of American Fine and Decorative Arts, New York, 2009
In September, Sara accepted the position of EA to both the Associate Director & COO of The Shed, an exciting cultural center located in New York's Hudson Yards, host to a broad range of performance, music and visual art, due to open in 2019.
Megan Lynch
Masters of Art Business, Los Angeles, 2014
Starting a new venture with National Geographic Fine Art Galleries, Megan is a Fine Art Consultant, specializing in National Geographic photography. National Geographic Fine Art Galleries presents fine art photography through exclusive limited editions embodying the rich heritage of the National Geographic Society and National Geographic magazine. For more information, please contact: MLynch@natgeofineart.com.
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Alexander Marr
Bachelors of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 1999
Alex is Reader in the History of Early Modern Art at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity Hall. He moved to Cambridge from Los Angeles, where he was a professor at USC. He is currently writing a book on Rubens and directing a project on early modern ingenuity, funded by the European Research Council.
Jimena Martin-Moreno
Masters of Art Business, London, 2011
Jimena is now working in Events at Christian Dior, North America.
Thomas McDowell
Masters of Contemporary Art, London, 2013
Thomas is currently the Director of Anthony Grant, Inc., a private art dealership and consultancy based in New York specializing in sales of Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art. Prior to joining AG Inc, Thomas spent three years working at Sotheby’s in the Contemporary Art Department.
Nora McGovern
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2012-2013
Nora is currently Christie's Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale Coordinator.
Amy Wren Miller
Masters of Contemporary Design, London, 2013
In 2014 Wren founded House of Wren, a creative management agency representing talent in the arts and entertainment industries. The agency furthers the professional careers of those contributing to the innovation of art, its mediums and form. Fine art and experienced-based installations, both permanent and pop-up, are included in the creative inventory available for rent, sale or commission. House of Wren connects artists to their markets both domestic and abroad offering special event technologies, curated exhibitions, site specific installations, and private sales. The agency holds offices in Los Angeles and Detroit. Please connect at wren@houseofwren.com for more information or interest in collaborating.
Liza M.E. Muhlfeld
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2014
After working as a market editor at Art+Auction magazine for almost two years, Liza was hired as an Account Executive at Polskin Arts and Communication Counselors, a firm that provides strategic communications counsel and program implementation for major museums and other cultural institutions in the United States and abroad.
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Uma Parameswar
Masters of Art Business, Singapore, 2010
At the recent International Council of Museums triennial meeting in Milano, Uma was elected as a Board Member (Asia Representative ICOM) to one of the International Committees with a focus of museum pedagogy.
Sookang Park
Masters of Art Business, Singapore, 2009
Sookang is co-founder and director of AMCompass that carries out a various range of art-related projects from market research, publications, and lectures to exhibitions with a mission to enhance the awareness of contemporary art.
AMCompass will present the company’s first exhibition in Hong Kong this November. Unfolding Spaces, a solo show by Korean contemporary artist Byung Jae Oh, will be held from Nov 4 to 13. Sookang would like to welcome SIA alumni to the opening reception @ S201, PMQ, Central, Hong Kong on November 3 (Thursday), 6-8pm.
Philippa Anne Patrick Richardson
Bachelors of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 1999
Philippa is an artist and enjoys holding her solo exhibitions. www.philipparichardson.co.uk
Ilaria Peloso
Master in Art Business, London, 2010
After working for the Whitechapel Gallery in London, Ilaria moved to Germany in 2012 where she started to work as Gallery Manager and Director's Assistant for the Galerie Dorothea van der Koelen. Here she managed different exhibition projects, among others for the Venice Biennale and the van der Koelen private collection. In 2016 she moved to Berlin and became Sales Manager at Bernheimer Contemporary - art solutions and projects.
Kasia Ploskonka
Masters of Contemporary Art, London, 2013
While working across all three Frieze Art Fairs, in London and New York, in the role of Exhibitor Data Coordinator, Kasia is a MPhil/PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London. The title of the PhD research is Contesting Convention? Contemporary art & politics from Post-Soviet Central Asia. Her research interests lie in the conjunction between Central Asian art and politics post 1991, how contemporary artistic practices challenge political and societal conventions as well as the development of artistic platforms within the region.
Jennifer Pregenzer Terzian
Masters of Post-war Contemporary Art, London 2001
Currently, Jennifer is working with Jane Eckert of Eckert Fine Art in Kent, CT. In addition, she is the art consultant for Winvian Farm in Morris, CT and Director and owner of LivWill Art. She is curating a show of new work by Yale MFA artist, Bryan Stryeski which opens October 8 in Litchfield, CT.
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Lavinia Rosen
Master of Art Business, New York, 2015
After returning to Hamburg, Germany, Lavinia started her own pop-up gallery called Kunstvoll to show emerging artists in vacant real estate. After a successful guest curation at the heliumcowboy artspace, she is now the gallery manager of this gallery specializing in New Contemporary Art, representing artists like Alex Diamond and Victor Castillo. Additionally she works as an art advisor and writes on a regular basis for artdependence magazine.
Samantha Rothenberg
Masters of American Fine and Decorative Art, New York, 2012
Samantha works in illustration and has an adult coloring book entitled 'Magical Objects' which will be released by St. Martin's Press in February 2017.
In 2015, she founded Violet Clair, a line of stationery line featuring her original artwork which is currently sold at retailers nationwide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Queens Museum, Fred Segal, Urban Outfitters, and Paper Source.
Ina Rueckemann
Masters of Art Business, London, 2009
Since April this year, Ina is the gallery manager at Arthill Gallery in London, a new gallery focusing on Chinese Contemporary ink art but also representing European contemporary artists.
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Steve Sabella
Masters of Art Business, London, 2009
Steve Sabella's memoir, The Parachute Paradox, was published by Kerber Verlag in Germany. Book launches at CAP Kuwait, ICI Berlin in collaboration with Taswir Projects and IFA Gallery, SOAS University London, and Al Serkal Avenue Dubai in collaboration with Barjeel Foundation.
Sadia Sadia
Styles in Art, London, 1991
Sadia Sadia is an installation artist working across a wide variety of media, including sound, still and moving images. As an installation artist, her works include multiple elements of imagery and sound to create immersive environments, frequently incorporating manipulation or distortion of time. Her work is held in permanent collections including ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image).
She is currently pursuing research into immersive environments through a PhD (Art) at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), where she is the recipient of an IPRS International Postgraduate Research Scholarship. www.chimera-arts.com
Josephine Rosa von Schorlemer
Masters of Art Business, London, 2015
Josephine interned with the Restitution Department at Sotheby's London, then worked at the Commission for Looted Art in Europe and is now at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. There she is working on the Getty Provenance Index.
Eiren Shea
Masters of East Asian Art, London, 2010
Eiren is now an Assistant Professor of Art History at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA (USA) specializing in the Mongol period in China and dress, textiles and exchange between the Mongol-ruled Yuan court in China and the Ilkhanid court in Persia.
Emily Shwajlyk
Masters of American Fine and Decorative Art, New York, 2011
Emily is currently working at Christie's, New York as an Associate Specialist in the American furniture and Decorative Arts department. She assists with business getting, appraising and cataloguing pieces for the Important American Furniture, Silver, Outsider and Folk Art sales, which are held twice a year, in September and in January.
Tamar Sinanian
Masters in Contemporary Art, London, 2005
Tamar has her own art appraisals company in Los Angeles, California, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art.
www.tamarsinanian.com
Lynn Sivanand Hilloowala
Masters of Art Business, London, 2009
Lynn manages sales and client development at DAG Modern, Mumbai working on exhibitions and auctions of Indian art. She also writes for publications like National Geographic Traveller.
Kiki Slaughter
Masters of Contemporary Art, London, 2007
Kiki is an abstract artist working in Atlanta, GA. www.kikislaughter.com. She also recently launched a line of painted jewelry called Coco Hill, aka "Wear Art". True to its tag line, Coco Hill is wearable art made with colorful canvas sourced from actual paintings.
Becca Spiro
Masters of Contemporary Art, London, 2011
Becca is currently working as the Director of Learning and Innovation at Breckenridge Creative Arts, a non-profit organization in Colorado.
Margaret Strode
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, London, 2015
Margaret moved to New York shortly after finishing her dissertation. She is currently the Department Assistant for 19th Century European Paintings at Sotheby’s.
Danielle Suchman
Masters of Contemporary Art, London 2015
After finishing her third semester in New York in Art Business, Danielle was hired to be the content editor for the scavenger hunt company, Strayboots in New York.
Simmy Swinder
Masters of Art Business, New York, 2009
In 2015, Simmy joined Ibid Gallery, Los Angeles as Director. She was instrumental in opening the new 13,000 sq ft gallery in September 2016 and continues to foster its international programming alongside the gallery's London-based gallery. Simmy also is the founder of Four Six One Nine, a space she opened in 2012 to invite galleries, curators, and advisors looking for exhibition opportunities in Los Angeles.
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Dea Vanagan
Masters of Art Business, London, 2006
After 10 years with curatorial collective Artwise as Associate Director and Curator, and following the curation of an official pavilion in Venice for the 56th Art Biennale in 2015, Dea is now the Director of Hauser & Wirth Somerset - a pioneering world-class gallery and multipurpose arts centre that is a destination for experiencing art, architecture and the remarkable Somerset landscape through new and innovative exhibitions of contemporary art. She has also stepped down from her role as Founding Artistic Director of the Bomb Factory Art Foundation to become a Trustee for the non-profit organization.
Alex "Sasha" Varlet
Masters of Art Business, London, 2011
Alex is the Associate Director of Development at the Music Institute of Chicago, where she co-leads all donor stewardship and cultivation, managing the Music Institute's major, individual, corporate, foundation, and endowment giving programs. Alex can be reached via her LinkedIn page.
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Erin-Marie Wallace
Masters of Fine and Decorative Art, 2006
Erin-Marie is CEO of E. M. Wallace Auctions & Appraisals, an innovator in webcast auctions and online sales, her company is currently developing a mobile app for bidding, buying and submitting items for appraisal. Contact Erin-Marie directly at EMW@EMWAA.com.
Yanouchka Wenger Sabbatini
17th to 20th Cent Decorative Art and Design Diploma, London, 1995
After completing a Masters and D.E.A. in Art Business in Paris (I.E.S.A.), Yanouchka worked several years as a gallery manager in Geneva, first selling Original Vintage Posters, then promoting young contemporary artists. She then worked as an event coordinator and P.R. for a contemporary music festival (Archipel). She is now based in London.
Tara Westermann
Master’s of Contemporary Art, New York, 2014
Tara currently works as Managing Director at VIVIANEART, a commercial contemporary art gallery in Calgary, AB. At VIVIANEART, Tara works alongside the team bringing strong critical art to the city, while also supporting young Canadian talent elsewhere.
Sureyya Wille
Masters of Art Business, London, 2010
Sureyya has relocated from Hong Kong to London to run sales across Europe, Africa and the Middle East for Artsy since February 2016. Her team in London and Berlin is growing!
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Josh M. G. Yates
Master of Art Contemporary Art, London, 2013
Since graduating, Josh has been working as a New York City based artist, exhibiting and selling work. As of September 2016, he is an MFA Fine Arts candidate at The School of Visual Arts.