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Michael Rooks
Employment: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago, IL 60611
Assistant Curator
November 1998 to Present
Education: Master of Arts in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, August 1995.
Bachelor of Fine Arts
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, May 1988.
Major: Studio painting Minor: Art HistoryCuratorial Projects: War (What is it
Good For?) (January 18 — May 18, 2003)
Curator: MCA originated exhibition
12x12: Kerry Skarbakka (December 6 - 30, 2002)
Cut, Pulled, Colored, & Burnt (August 25 — October 6, 2002)
Curator; Hyde Park Art Center originated exhibition
Liz Larner: Untitled 2001 (May 7 — September 8, 2002)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
Paul Dickinson: 7 Chakra Subwoofers (May 3 — May 31, 2002)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
Gregg Bordowitz: Drive (April 5 — July 7, 2002)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
The Body Present: Effigies, Decoys and Other Equivalents (January 19 — May 12, 2002) Curator; MCA originated exhibition
H. C. Westermann (June 30 — September 23, 2001)
Tour: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D. C.,
February 14 — May 12, 2002; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art,
June 9 — September 8, 2002; Menil Collection, Houston, October 4, 2002
— February 5, 2003)
Co-Curator; MCA originated exhibition
H. C. Westermann Film Series (July 3 — August 21, 2001)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
Gilbert & George: Nineteen Ninety Nine (February 3 — May 20, 2001)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
AA Bronson: Negative Thoughts (January 27 — April 22, 2001)
Curator; MCA originated exhibition
Roy Lichtenstein: Interiors (July 24 - October 10, 1999)
Co-Curator; MCA originated exhibition
Unfinished History (January 29 - April 4, 1999)
MCA Coordinator; travelling exhibition originated by the Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis, MN; curated by Francesco Bonami
Susanna Coffey Retrospective (September 22 -October, 29 1998)
Guest Curator; Jaffe-Friede & Strauss Galleries, Dartmouth College,
Hanover, NH
Robert Barnes (August - November, 1997)
Guest Curator; Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, GlenEllyn, IL
Publications: Gregg Bordowitz: Drive. Chicago: Whitewalls, 2003.
Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain: The MCA Collection. Chicago: Museum
of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2002.
H. C. Westermann. 2 Volumes. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001.
Catalogue raisonné and exhibition catalogue.
"See America First": The Prints of H. C. Westermann. Chicago: The
Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago, 2001. Catalogue raisonné
and exhibition catalogue.
Roy Lichtenstein: Interiors. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999; reprint,
New York: Hudson Hills Press, Inc., 2001. Exhibition catalogue.
Susanna Coffey. Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
Robert Barnes. Glen Ellyn: College of DuPage, Gahlberg Gallery, 1997.
Exhibition catalogue.
Selected Articles
and reviews: "Letting Go of General Idea," interview with AA Bronson,
Dialogue (January/February 2001): 19-20.
"Mark Booth on Wool Mammoths, the Language of Porn, and More," interview
with Mark Booth, Dialogue (May/June 1999): 42-43.
"Landlocked and Ceremonial: Prairie Sculpture." New Art Examiner
(May 1998): 34-37.
"Chicago Artists: Q & A with Arturo Herrera and Susanna Coffey"
interview with Susanna Coffey and Arturo Herrera, Dialogue (May/ June 1998):
24-27.
"Wesley Kimler." New Art Examiner (April 1998): 55-56.
"Handpicked and Handmade: an Interview with Ruth Horwich," interview
with Ruth Horwich, The New Art Examiner (March 1998): 42-46.
"Seeking the City of Truth: Robert Barnes’s Illustrations for the First Ten Cantos of Ezra Pound." The Smart Museum of Art Bulletin, No. 9, 1997-1998, 8-19.
"Carlos Cortez." The New Art Examiner (September 1997): 54.
"Out of the Shadow of Ivan Albright." The New Art Examiner (July-August
1997): 41-42.
Lectures: "Conscience, Morality, and Curating." Tweed Museum of Art,
University of Minnesota, Duluth, February 27, 2003.
"I’d Like to Live Here." Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,
Washington, D.C., February 14, 2002.
"A Mad Cabinetmaker Might: H. C. Westermann," in dialogue with co-curator
Lynne warren. Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, September 15, 2001.
"H. C. Westermann," Arts Club of Chicago, September 13, 2001.
"L’Homme Blessé, the Artist as Victim of Beauty’s ‘Short-Lived
Tyranny.’"
The Art Institute of Chicago, March 7, 2001.
"An afternoon with Gilbert & George." In Dialogue with Gilbert
& George Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, February 4, 2001.
"Robert Barnes and his Daemon." Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage,
Glen Ellyn, IL, August 25, 1997.
Community Service: Board Member: University of Chicago, "Friends Against
AIDS,"
Pediatric AIDS Unit. 2000-present.
Board Member: University of Chicago, Weiss Memorial Hospital, "Art Against
AIDS," annual charity auction, 1999-2000.