Kathy Battista is a writer, educator and curator of exhibitions in museums, galleries and nonprofits. Her research is primarily focused on cross-generational feminist art, in particular performance and body-oriented practice. Most recently she curated Non-Objectified at Kino Saito Foundation, Verplanck, NY; Resonance at marytwo, Lucerne, Switzerland; The Art of Fashion at Fountain House Gallery, NYC; Escape Attempts at Nazarian Curcio Gallery, Los Angeles; and E.A.T.: Experiments in Art and Technology at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria. She has authored numerous books, including New York New Wave: The Legacy of Feminist Art in Emerging Practice (2019) and Renegotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s London (2012). Battista also co-edited a book on artist estates and foundations, Creative Legacies: Critical Issues in Artist Estates, for Lund Humphries (2020).

Battista has over 20 years of leadership positions in the art world. She founded the interaction program at Artangel, a renowned public art agency in London; the MA Program in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York; and the Chez Fifi artist residency in Branford, CT; and co-founded 89 Greene, a project space on the Lower East Side of New York. She has also served as editor in chief of the Benezit Dictionary of Art for Oxford University Press and is on several international nonprofit boards and committees. She holds a PhD from the University of London, an MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art and a BA from Fordham University.

Contact

Email: kathy@kathybattista.com,
Instagram: @kathybattista, @sharechezfifi
LinkedIn: Kathy Battista
Facebook: Kathy Battista

Teaching

Architectural Association School of Architecture London
Sotheby’s Institute of Art London
RUFA Rome University of Fine Arts
The London Consortium
Oxford Ruskin School of Art
RISD Rhode Island School of Design

Residencies

Chez Fifi
Chez Fifi x Friends of Outer Island
Sevil Dolmaci Residency

Leadership Experience

2022 ― pr. 89 Greene (at Signs and Symbols gallery), LES, New York, (Co-Founder and Curator)
2020 ― pr. Architectural Association School of Architecture, London, Faculty, (HTS Studies)
2019 ― 22 Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, Istanbul (Creative Director)
2019 ― pr. Di Giacinto Morris Private Collection, London, (Curator and Advisor)
2017 ― 19 Art Legacy Planning LLC, (Partner and Co-Founder)
2007 ― 19 Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York (Director Emerita, MA Contemporary Art Program)
2006 Serpentine Gallery, London, (Curatorial Team member, London 24-Hour Interview Marathon)
1997 ― 02 Artangel, London, (Founder and Head of Interaction)
1995 ― 97 Camden Arts Centre, London, (Education Assistant and Coordinator)

Exhibitions Curated & Commisions

2023 Ken Kiff and Friends, Albertz Benda Gallery, New York
2022 Youth Hostel, marytwo, Lucerne, Switzerland
2022 Slip Slidin’ Away: Reuven Israel, Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, Istanbul
2021 Everything Has Its Place, Sevil Dolmaci Gallery, Istanbul
2020 Marie Jacotey: You Pinned Me Down Like a Butterfly on a Wall, Ballon Rouge,
Pablos Birthday
2018 Carmen Argote: Warm Is a Black, Ballon Rouge
2017 The Art of Fashion, Fountain House Gallery, NY
2017 Escape Attempts, Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, LA
2016 What’s Right What’s Left: Democracy in America, Phoenix Gallery, NY
2015 E.A.T.: Experiments in Art and Technology, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
2015 Arslan Sukan, While You Were Surfing, Five Eleven Gallery, New York
2014 Linea: Katie Holten and Mariateresa Sartori, Bosi Contemporary, New York
2014 Shony Rivnay, Bosi Contemporary, New York
2014 Republika, Bosi Contemporary, New York
2013 Syri-Arts Benefit Auction, Beirut Exhibition Center
2012 Royal Academy: Encounter at Katara Arts Center, Doha
2012 Sweethearts, Houldsworth Gallery
2009 28 Rue Bonaparte series, B.E.S
2007 Brunswick Hotel, selector of artist commission, Glasgow
2006 A-WAL, on-line exhibition
2006 Sandanista, selector of artist commission
2004 XS, (selector), FA Projects, London
2003 Traditional Urbanism, The Prince’s Foundation for Architecture, London
2003 Imaging Contemporary London, (co-curator), Houldsworth Gallery
2000 Victor Burgin: Nietzsche’s Paris, Architectural Association Gallery
2000 Alan Ball & Tatsuo Inagaki, (co-curator), The International Building,
Royal Holloway University of London
2000 The Point of Light, (co-curator), The Photographers’ Gallery

Books

2020 Creative Legacies: Critical Issues in Artist Estates, Lund Humphries  
2019 New York, New Wave: The Legacy of Feminist Art in Emerging Practices, IB Tauris
2014 Marta Jovanovic, CUNY
2012 Renegotiating the Body: Feminist Artists in 1970s London, IB Tauris
2009 Haluk Akakce, Gallerist
2007 1001 Buildings, Quarto
2000 Art New York, Ellipsis
1998 Recent Architecture in The Netherlands, Ellipsis

Chapters and Catalogue Essays

2021 This is (the New Normal) America, Kunsthal Potsdam
2020 Pretty When You Cry: Cristina BanBan, Albertz Benda Gallery
2019 Beyond the Body, Tina Lechner: Susan Told Me, Verlag Fur Moderne Kunst
2019 21st c Feminist Positions: Nadja Marcin and the Reclamation of the Female Figure, 
Sandstein Verlag
2019 Brie Ruais: Mapping Experience’, Brie Ruais, Albertz Benda Gallery
2018 Elif Uras: Body, Vessel, Architecture’, Elif Uras, Galerist
2017 ‘A Tireless Persistence and Strength’, CANAN: Behind Mount Qaf, Arter, Istanbul
2016 ‘Batia Shani’
2016 ‘She’s Here: Antoinette Aurelle, Anne Daems, Cecilia Edefalk, Anna Kleberg, Jenny Källman,
Kaja Leijon’, Kamarade Gallery, Sweden
2015 ‘Sherin Guirguis’, COLA essay
2014 ‘Judy Chicago: Heads Up’, David Richard Contemporary, Sante Fe
2012 ‘Touching Petals: Will Ryman’s Roses’, Paul Kasmin Gallery
2012 ‘Metaphysical Journeys: Will Ryman at Paul Kasmin Gallery’
2011 ‘Wonder Women’, Rooster Gallery
2010 ‘Beverly Fishman’, David Richard Contemporary, Sante Fe, New Mexico
2010 Active Liberty Institute panel, Phillips Auction House NY  
2009 ‘Sarah Lucas’ Toilet Humour’, Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender, ed Barbara Penner
and Olga Gersheson, Temple University Press,
2006 ‘Cultivated Wilderness’, The ArtWorks Programme, Black Dog Publishing
2006 ‘Let There Be Light’, Surface Tension Supplement 1, Errant Bodies
2005 ‘Interview with Sarah Baker’, Journal of Museum Dhondt-Dhanens, Ghent
2005 ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’, O Zhang, ITM Gallery, London
2004 ‘Nothing Doing’, Nothingness, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz
2004 ‘EmotIcon’, catalogue essay for Art in Sacred Places
2004 ‘Jo Mitchell’, catalogue essay for EAST International, Norwich Gallery of Art and Design
2003 ‘A World Without Dimensions’, Peter Garfield, Dartmouth College
2003 ‘Generative Cities’ (co-author), Absolute Generations, Venice Biennale
2003 ‘Domestic Crisis: Feminist Artists in South London, 1974 – 1995’,
Surface Tension: The Problematics of Site, Errant Bodies
2003 ‘The City as Plinth: Public Art in London in the New Millennium’, Eyeing London,
Lawrence & Wishart
2003 ‘Catherine Elwes’, Lux on Line
2002 ‘Dan Graham interviewed by Kathy Battista and Mark Morris’, Arcade,
Lawrence & Wishart
2000 ‘Shit Happens: Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document at the ICA’, Room 5: The Journal
of the London Consortium

Articles—Refereed

2016 ‘New Feminist Positions: Disrupting a White Feminist Canon’, Third Text
2009 ‘Art and Architecture: A Place Between’, book review, Design History Journal,
2005 ‘Exploring An Area of Outstanding Unnatural Beauty: a treasure hunt around King’s Cross,
London’, (co-author), Cultural Geographies, Volume 12
2005 ‘Art and the Metrosexual: CAN 05’, Art and Architecture Journal, No 63
2005 ‘Herzog and de Meuron’, Art and Architecture Journal, No 62
2004 ‘Tina Keane: Electronic Shadows’, book review, Third Text
2004 ‘William Pope.L’, Third Text
2001 ‘Mary Kelly’s Mea Culpa’, Third Text
2001 ’13 questions/14 directors’, M’ARS (the journal of the Museum of Modern Art Slovenia)
1999 ‘The Art of Shopping’, Public Art Journal

Editorial Work

2015 ― pr. Editor in Chief, Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Oxford University Press
2005 ― 08 Editorial Board member, Art & Architecture Journal
2002 ― 05 Books Editor, Contemporary, London,
2003 Editor, Traditional Urbanism, The Prince’s Foundation for Architecture
Founding member of editorial board, Room 5: The Journal of the London Consortium

Education

2005 PhD, The London Consortium (Architectural Association School of Architecture,
Tate Modern, Birkbeck College, The Institute of Contemporary Arts)
Dissertation: Women’s Work: Feminist Artists in 1970s London
1995 MA, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Area of Study: Post-war and contemporary British Art
1992 BA, magna cum laude, Fordham College, Fordham University, NY
Double major: History of Art & English Literature

Grants & Awards

2014 Choice Book Award for Renegotiating the Body
2010 ― 14 Senior Research Fellow, Center for Research, Global Futures in Art and Design,
Winchester, School of Art, University of Southampton
2001 ― 03 London Consortium Research Fellowship, renewed in 2004
1998 ― 01 Overseas Research Scholarship, CVCP, tuition fees
2001 Hugh Gaitskell Fund Travel Grant
1999 ― 00 British Federation of Women Graduate Students, research stipend
1997 Stimuleringsfonds fur Arkitectuur, research stipend for publication
1997 Nederlandse Spoorenwegen, travel stipend for research leading to publication
1997 Royal Dutch Embassy in London, travel stipend leading to publication

Membership of Professional Societies

Ensemble Member, New School of the Anthropocene, London
Founding Member, Ballon Rouge Curatorial Collective
Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association
College Art Association 
NADA: New Art Dealers Association
The London Consortium Steering Committee

Pro Bono Work

2022 Guggenheim rebranding curatorial advisory committee
2018 Friends of Kayany Benefit Auction for Syrian Refugee Children
2017 ― 19 ArtSpace Benefit Committee
2017 ― 18 Fountain House Benefit Committee
2015 ― 16 Watermill Benefit Committee
2013 Carriage Trade Benefit Committee
2010 ― 12 NJ MoCA Advisory Committee
2009 ― 11 Independent Curators International Benefit Committee

Website Credits

Graphic Design and Development, Basil Haug