Heather Kouris

Curatorial Statement

My curatorial projects tend to comment on our continually changing world, sometimes focusing on how society affects the individual while other times exploring cultural trends. While these are general and somewhat wide ranging ideas, my job as an independently working curator is to assemble good works of art for the exhibition visitor to discover something beyond the work itself.

Contemporary artists often express how they see the world. My curatorial aim is to bring together artists who are making work in the context of a social issue, whether directly or indirectly. Many artists often look to their environment to find sources of inspiration and expression in their work; the artists I tend to work with directly represent the world they see around them. In this time of easy distortion, I am also drawn to works that have been manipulated in some way by the artist, in whatever medium. For me a good exhibition is one where the curator’s vision is as clearly understood as each work in the show. Much like artists who have a statement to make with their works, I believe a curator show also be able to express their idea and successfully build links between the works in the exhibition and his or her idea.

A recent trend is for artists, critics and others to work as curators, another is the formation of an increasing number of schools to train curators. It is important to maintain the integrity of an exhibition and its idea without the curator becoming a superstar and being informed about their activity, again to make a clear intention for the exhibition and not simply to show friends or work that will give only easy recognition.