Contact: Katherine Lee Seth

kalee@calarts.edu

661-291-3044

Eungie Joo accepts position at New Museum; Clara Kim appointed acting director and curator

LOS ANGELES, April 5 – Eungie Joo, the curator and director of the Gallery at REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), will leave that position to become director and curator of education and public programs at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, effective July 1, 2007. Mark Murphy, executive director of REDCAT announced today that Clara Kim, currently the associate curator of the gallery, will become acting director and curator of the Gallery at REDCAT while plans for a search are put in place.

Joo and Kim have both been with REDCAT since the gallery and theater complex was opened by the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in November 2003. "In the short time since our opening, Eungie and Clara have truly established the Gallery at REDCAT as a vital and internationally respected center for contemporary art and ideas," Murphy said. "I am excited for Eungie's next step, although I am very sorry to see her go. I look forward to working with Clara as she continues to build on their impressive success."

Under Joo's leadership, the Gallery at REDCAT has presented solo, group, and two-person exhibitions featuring the work of Emerson Woelffer, Superflex, Mark Bradford and Glenn Kaino, Julie Mehretu, Gimhongsok and Sora Kim, Taro Shinoda, Margaret Kilgallen, Kara Walker, Damian Ortega, Mathieu Briand, Andrea Bowers, Charles Gaines and Edgar Arceneaux, Song Dong and Yin Xiuzhen, and others. Joo's departure from Los Angeles will not affect scheduled exhibitions, and she will remain curator of projects with Barry McGee, Choi Jeong Hwa, and Haegue Yang in the coming year.

The Gallery at REDCAT presents five exhibitions a year and publishes two books each year. It also creates a rigorous relationship with early career artists through its residency program. As an extension of CalArts' commitment to training and supporting art practice from all disciplines, the director and curator of the Gallery is conceived as an evolving position that supports early career curators to program and execute relevant exhibitions, projects, and publications. To achieve this, the director and curator is expected to remain at REDCAT from three to five years before passing the torch to an equally deserving emerging curator.

As assistant, then associate curator at REDCAT, Kim has organized the group exhibition White Noise (2004) and the exhibition and catalogue Snake River: Charles Gaines and Edgar Arceneaux (2006) while also overseeing all guest-curated exhibitions at REDCAT. Kim's exhibition with Renata Lucas opens on June 29, 2007, and a project with John Bock opens in September 2008. Joo says of Kim's appointment, "I am delighted that CalArts president Steven D. Lavine and executive director Mark Murphy have appointed Clara to this position. REDCAT staff has worked closely to execute some amazing projects, exhibitions, performances, residencies and books over the past four years, for which I am extremely grateful and proud. It brings me great pleasure that Clara is excited to start the next chapter in her career by taking on the Gallery's programming, fundraising, and curatorial duties. It is a tough job, but perhaps the best job in the world."

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REDCAT is an interdisciplinary contemporary arts center consisting of a 3,000 square foot gallery and a flexible, state-of-the-art 200-seat theater located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles. REDCAT continues the tradition of the California Institute of the Arts, its parent organization, by supporting the commission, production and presentation of today's most challenging works in visual, performing, and media arts.

CalArts, the first U.S. higher educational institution to integrate the visual and performing arts under one roof, is recognized as the nation's leading laboratory for the arts. Housing six schools--Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater--CalArts embraces creative cross-pollination among diverse art forms and traditions and strongly encourages each artist to pursue his or her vision within a broad context of social and cultural understanding.