Pace Gallery Hires Hirshhorn Museum Curator Mark Beasley to Head Up Its New ‘Live’ Art Program in New York

As Pace Gallery gears up for the opening of its massive new
custom-built headquarters on New York’s West 25th Street in
September, the blue-chip gallery announced that it has hired
veteran performance art curator Mark Beasley as curatorial director
of the new Pace Live program, which kicks off next month.

Beasley, who was formerly curator of media and performance art
at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC,
will oversee the new multi-disciplinary program that includes
music, dance, film, performance, and conversation. Pace Live, which
will occupy a 150-seat gallery on the seventh floor, aims to
give artists, scholars, and critics the opportunity to experiment
across a range of disciplines and find new ways to connect with the
public.

“Performance and time-based art are now central to the art being
made at this moment,” Pace president and CEO Marc Glimcher said in
a statement. “As part of our strategy to bring the curatorial world
into the decision-making process of how to run and program an art
gallery, adding an extraordinary curator whose expertise is in this
area is essential for us.”

Beasley previously held curatorial positions at the Institute of
Contemporary Arts in London and the British Council, as well as
Creative Time and Performa in New York. At the Hirshhorn
he worked with contemporary artists such as Yoko Ono, Kim
Gordon, Tino Sehgal, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Arthur Jafa, and Frances
Stark—a high-profile program that caught the attention of Pace
leaders at a critical time in the gallery’s evolution.

“Mark and Arne had been watching our program and had new ideas
for their gallery,” Beasley told artnet News. “We really want to
push how we work with performance and live art.”

It’s an art form that’s been on the rise in recent years because
“it’s an unmediated encounter that isn’t experienced through a
filter or a screen,” Beasley says. What was once “subcultural, now
demands global attention.” Interest has been further piqued, he
says, by celebrity attention from figures such as Jay Z, who
collaborated with performance-art legend Marina Abramovic in 2013,
and Kanye West, who has recently been giving interviews about how
he wants to harness the sonic effects of gospel and evangelical
music in his own work.

Beasley expects the role at Pace to be more akin to his position
at Performa, where he programmed and commissioned a series of vocal
concerts and artists projects, than the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn
Museum. “It was very different than the Smithsonian in terms of the
speed of projects and relationships working with artist,” he said.
“Working with Pace is maybe closer to Performa in terms of the
specific artists and timeline. It’s something I’m quite comfortable
with.”

Prior to the official debut of Pace Live, Beasley will work as a
consulting curator for Pace’s first solo show of works by the late
trailblazing performance artist Vito Acconci, opening in London on
August 27. The show will look at the artist’s graphic activities
from 1969 to 1973, as well as videos and archival materials that
explore the relationship between subject and object and public
space and body politics.

Beasley will be based in Pace’s new Chelsea building and will
work closely with the gallery’s leadership team, led by Glimcher
and senior director Andria Hickey.

The post Pace Gallery Hires Hirshhorn Museum Curator Mark
Beasley to Head Up Its New ‘Live’ Art Program in New York
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