Laurel Ptak
Laurel Ptak is an arts leader, curator, and educator based in New York City who has held diverse roles at art institutions in the US and internationally, including Art in General (New York), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), MoMA PS 1 Contemporary Art Center (New York), Museo Tamayo (Mexico City), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), among others. This work has garnered awards, grants, fellowships, and press for its nuanced engagement with timely issues, originality, and unflinching belief in art’s role in shaping the society we live in. Ptak has taught undergraduate and graduate students at Columbia University, New York University, School of Visual Arts and The New School in New York City and has lectured widely at museums, art schools, and universities across the United States and internationally. Ptak is a co-founder of Art+Feminism which builds community around closing gaps related to gender, feminism, and the arts, with events co-organized by thousands of arts organizations, universities, and civic institutions across the US and around the world. Committed to rigorous artistic practices, Ptak’s curatorial work is known for opening up critical ideas for wide audiences and recent projects have been covered by Artforum, Frieze, Mousse, October, New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, National Public Radio, CBS News, and many others.
Ptak is author of Wages For Facebook (2013) and co-editor of the book Undoing Property? published by Sternburg Press in Berlin (2013) and Mülkiyeti Geri Almak, published by Koç University Press in Istanbul (2016). Her writing on contemporary art and artists appears in Songs For Sabotage, New Museum Triennial catalogue published by Phaidon in London (2018), Visions of the Now published by Sternberg Press in Berlin (2016), Practice of Place published by Bedford Press in London (2015), Philippe Parreno published by Sternburg Press in Berlin (2010), Words Without Pictures published by LACMA in Los Angeles (2009), among others. She has written on collectivity, social engagement, and feminist art practices for Art Journal, Bomb Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, The Exhibitionist, and more.
A career-long advocate for the importance of small-scale, non-profit and alternative art spaces, Ptak has presented exhibitions, talks, and collaborated with arts institutions worldwide including: The Barber Shop (Lisbon), Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons (Utrecht), Center for Contemporary Arts (Tallinn), CuratorLab (Stockholm), Delfina Foundation (London), FUTURA (Prague), Gasworks (London), Interference Archive (New York), Kadist (San Francisco), OFF-Biennale (Budapest), Museo Tamayo (Mexico City), New Museum (New York), Queens Museum (New York), Performa (New York), Recess (New York), SALT (Istanbul), The Showroom (London), Swimming Pool (Sofia), Swiss Institute (New York), Taipei Contemporary Art Center (Taiwan), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), Thupelo (Cape Town), Vera List Center for Art & Politics (New York), and more. (2024)
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