Portrait of Karen Archey by Tomek Dersu Aaron
Karen Archey is Curator of Contemporary Art at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. At the Stedelijk, Archey cares for the contemporary art and time-based media collections and administrates the contemporary permanent collection display Tomorrow is a Different Day. She has organized major exhibitions of artists Hito Steyerl, Rineke Dijkstra, and Metahaven, as well as the group exhibition Freedom of Movement: the 2018 Municipal Art Acquisitions. For the Stedelijk, Archey has commissioned performance works by Nora Turato, Jennifer Tee, Ann Hirsch, Alicia Frankovich and CFGNY. She heads the museum’s research initiative on the acquisition, conservation and display of time-based media.
Formerly based in Berlin and New York, Archey worked earlier as an independent curator, editor, and art critic, writing for publications such as Artforum and frieze. In 2014, she organized with Robin Peckham the exhibition “Art Post-Internet” at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. In 2015, Archey was awarded an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for short-form writing. Her recently published book After Institutions examines museums as a troubled, rapidly evolving public space and renews discussions around Institutional Critique.