Hamza Walker, Curator at Renaissance Society and co-curator of Made in L.A. 2016, presented a free public program at The Lab for Art & Dialogue: San Francisco. See a video of the full conversation above, courtesy of The Lab.
Hamza Walker is the Director of Education and Associate Curator for the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. Recent exhibitions at the Renaissance Society include “Teen Paranormal Romance” (2014), “Suicide Narcissus” (2013), and John Neff (2013). His important 2008 Renaissance Society exhibition, “Black Is, Black Ain’t,” explored a shift in the rhetoric of race from an earlier emphasis on inclusion to a moment where racial identity was being simultaneously rejected and retained. Walker is the recipient of the 1999 Norton Curatorial Grant and the 2004 Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement, presented by the Menil Collection. In 2010 he was awarded the Ordway Prize; awarded by the New Museum and named for the naturalist, philanthropist, and arts patron Katherine Ordway. He has recently been announced as curator of the Hammer Museum’s forthcoming biennial, “Made in L.A. 2016.” Walker has contributed reviews and art criticism to New Art Examiner, Art Muscle, Dialogue, Parkett, and Artforum, in addition to numerous catalogue essays on artists ranging from Giovanni Anselmo and Darren Almond to Thomas Hirschhorn and Heimo Zobering. Prior to his work at the Renaissance Society, Walker was the Public Art Coordinator for the City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs.