Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Tara McDowell is Associate Professor and Director of Curatorial Practice at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research interests include contemporary curating, exhibition histories, art institutions, feminist and queer spaces of sociability and production, and the various support structures of art, including home, school, exhibition, labour, and friendship. Recent curatorial projects include the experimental symposium Shapeshifters: New Forms of Curatorial Research (2019); John Baldessari: Wall Painting (2017 and 2019); 124,908, for the 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, Georgia (2015); Nothing Beside Remains (2014); and The Land Grant: Flatbread Society with Amy Franceschini (2014). She publishes and lectures frequently, and her writing has appeared in art-agenda, artforum.com, Artlink, Discipline, Filip, The Lifted Brow, Memo Review, The Miami Rail, Mousse, un Magazine, and The Exhibitionist, a journal on curatorial practice for which she was Founding Senior Editor. She has written exhibition catalogue essays on Zarouhie Abdalian, Sarah Cain, Barbara Cleveland, Fiona Connor, Wangechi Mutu, David Park, Jahnne Pasco-White, and Richard Tuttle, among many others. McDowell has held curatorial appointments at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, where she mounted many solo and group exhibitions, including projects on Minimalism, Fluxus, assemblage, and avant-garde cinema. McDowell holds a PhD in the History of Art from the University of California, Berkeley. Her recent books include The Artist As (Sternberg Press, 2018) and The Householders: Robert Duncan and Jess (The MIT Press, 2019), which argued for domestic space as a site of creative production in the work of the artist Jess and poet Robert Duncan. The book was awarded the 2018 CAA Millard Meiss Publication Fund Award; was a 2020 nominee for the Charles C. Eldredge Prize for outstanding scholarship in the field of American art, Smithsonian American Art Museum; and was reviewed in seven national and international publications, including Bookforum, The Gay & Lesbian Review, and The New York Review of Books.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Art History, PhD, University of California Berkeley
Award Date: 31 May 2013
Research area keywords
- Curatorial practice
- Contemporary Art History & Art Theory
- Social Justice
- climate change
- Feminism
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Care and Repair: Rethinking Contemporary Curation for Conditions of Crisis
McDowell, T., Antoinette, M., McQuilten, G. & Khan, R.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
31/12/24 → 30/12/27
Project: Research
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Amor Mundi: Towards a Curatorial Ethics for Climate Crisis
McDowell, T., 2023, Dystopian and Utopian Impulses in Art Making: The World We Want. McQuilten, G. & Palmer, D. (eds.). Bristol UK: Intellect Books, p. 251-267 17 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Climate Aware Creative Practices: Towards a Collective Pedagogy
Bird, T., Hughes, H. & McDowell, T., 2023, 2022 ACUADS Conference: Public Pedagogy: forms of togetherness. ACUADS (Australian Council of University Art & Design Schools), p. 1-9 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference Paper › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Feminist Curating as Storytelling and Mothering: The Work of D and Kate Harding
McDowell, T., 2023, Curating as Feminist Organizing. Krasny, E. & Perry, L. (eds.). Oxon, UK: Routledge, p. 49-62 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Openings: D Harding
McDowell, T., 2023, Artforum International, 61, 5, p. 120-123 4 p.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article › Research
Open Access -
Take Hold of the Clouds
McDowell, T. & Watson, F., 2022Research output: Non-textual form › Curation › Research
Prizes
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MADA Education Grant
McDowell, Tara (Recipient), 1 Jun 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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MILLARD MEISS PUBLICATION GRANT: 'The Householders: Robert Duncan and Jess'
McDowell, Tara (Recipient), 2018
Prize: Other distinction
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Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) Publication Subsidy
McDowell, Tara (Recipient), 10 May 2018
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) Publication Subsidy
McDowell, Tara (Recipient), 1 Oct 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Monash Art Projects (MAP)
McDowell, Tara (Recipient), 1 Jun 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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This Is Public: Built/Unbuilt
Tara McDowell (Contributor)
29 Jul 2022Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Shapeshifters: New Forms of Curatorial Research
Tara McDowell (Organiser), Helen Hughes (Member of programme committee), Charles Francis Sofo (Invited speaker) & Lucreccia Maria Gomez Quintanilla (Invited speaker)
13 Mar 2019 → 14 Mar 2019Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Amor Mundi as a Curatorial Ethics
Tara McDowell (Contributor)
6 Feb 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Art in Translation: Current Perspectives on Arts Writing
Tara McDowell (Invited speaker)
28 Nov 2018Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Representation, Remembrance and the Memorial
Tara McDowell (Invited speaker)
1 Jun 2018Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
Press/Media
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PERFORMANCE REVIEW: 'The Eye and Rich in World Poor in World, Alicia Frankovich'
Tara McDowell & Fleur Watson
29/09/23
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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ARCHITECTURE AU: 'Staging encounters between art and architecture'
Tara McDowell & Fleur Watson
5/09/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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MEMO REVIEW: 'Take Hold of the Clouds'
Tara McDowell & Fleur Watson
13/08/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Review
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INDESIGNLIVE: 'Love letter to Melbourne: Open House program launched'
Tara McDowell & Fleur Watson
4/07/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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THE AGE: 'Want to peek inside Melbourne’s finest mansions and buildings? This is your chance'
Tara McDowell & Fleur Watson
30/06/22
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature