Joao Ribas

Joao Ribas

former Drawing Center curator.
Joao is now curator at MIT's List Visual Art Center.

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23 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you have the opportunity to hear him give a talk or participate in a panel discussion...don't miss it.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the comment above, because when he is faced with an argument or a different opinion he will fail. This guy uses wonderful paraphrases from art history but if you know your art history and actually listen you figure out he is a fraud and does not know what he is talking about.....just because you use big words doesn't make you smarter. listen and think at the same time while dusting off the jacket of your art history book 101.

Anonymous said...

are you high?

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...the guy is widely published, a curator at a respected institution at 29 (!), teaches, wins awards, and has been a visiting curator for dozens of institutions in the US and overseas...I think your ad hominem attacks sound a little stupid.

Anonymous said...

Yes, that is how cons work. You fool a couple of influential but lazy people and then you parlay their acceptance into various perks and positions and next thing you know you've got the kind of career that just rumbles on, all by itself, and soon everyone says he MUST not be a well-dressed but blathering nincompoop because he's so successful! And then the career eats the criticism and becomes an even bigger snowball. (It's a cliche to bring up Bernie Madoff, but ...) Isn't it a premise of this blog that at least some of the people with impressive and glorious careers in the art world have serious flaws that it's helpful to know about? Well, some people think Joao's flaws involve being a painfully pretentious know-nothing who only likes to be contradicted when he's doing it to himself. Of course, telling the truth, making sense, knowing what you're talking about: these are only a small part of a curator's job—if that. Art criticism in general is just a species of verbal muzak designed to drown out the sound of our smacking our lips while we chew. Nevertheless, people like this can be annoying when you disagree with them about the way they're installing your work, etc, because they'll wheel out their rhetorical rubber chicken cannon and start firing it at you until you too agree that they are the greatest.

Anonymous said...

"Art criticism in general is just a species of verbal muzak designed to drown out the sound of our smacking our lips while we chew."

The angry poster clearly picked Joao to air out his anger and frustration at what he calls "art criticism" and then lets us know the source of his anger: someone disagreed about how his work should be installed. Suggestions: 1. Therapy 2. Grow up 3. Give us concrete examples as to what exactly was contradicted.

Right now, I give Joao high marks based on the inane rant above which clearly speaks only of the anonymous commenter.

I have made a point to see all the shows he curated and I think he has contributed to the art scene and given forum to a lot of interesting artists. The program at the drawing center is really great. I am not interested in the personality factor so much, no one is perfect, including all of us who post. It is easier to criticize than to do it. People seem angered by some perceived insult and absolutely fail to see people in professional terms.

Joao has done a lot pretty much on his own terms without having to hang out with the Artforum mafia, and he has stuck to his ideas.

Anonymous said...

joao is ripping good. the fool who is making weak comments needs to smoke another bowl. just because you don't understand what he is talking about mr. smarty pants does not mean that he is not a total shredder. deal with it.

Anonymous said...

Has organized some interesting shows but seems like a total johnny come lately. Maybe it is just his greenhorn showing but seems to make predicatble curatorial choices--choices that anyone who reads art periodicals would make...

Anonymous said...

You mean predictable like Unica Zurn and Alan Saret?

Anonymous said...

yes, zurn and saret... aren't they predictable choices in an overdriven market where the constant push for novelty is commingled with opportunistic art historical re-engineering? Ribas' curatorial agenda is like an art historical match of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon; one step away from a Bellmer show, one step away from a Serra show...

Anonymous said...

That comment is not only ignorant, but stupidly reductive. Have you seen his shows? There wasn't a Saret show organized in almost 30 years---the Zurn retrospective is the first survey in the US EVER. It's been critically received as a revelation.

If not, then it's just armchair gripes (see above). Get over it. Move on.

Anonymous said...

He's doing a Ree Morton retrospective...definitely not predicable.

Anonymous said...

One of the only curators out there to focus heavily on the work of female artists.

Anonymous said...

Joao Ribas is full of shit and he is a caricature of an art critic.

And he is just damn annoying: "So most of my things are bespoke. I have a fantastic and brilliant couturier who I work with, Craig Robinson in New York. Either that or it’s been inherited from my father and grandfather. ... I have an abhorrence of both consumer culture and infantilism, which is why I don’t own a pair of jeans."

You don't wear jeans because you are afraid of being recognized for the pipsqueak you are instead of the pretentious ass you present yourself as.

Anyone who likes this guy and thinks he has anything of value to say needs to have their head checked.

Anonymous said...

So now we are critiquing curators based on the way they dress? Joao is one of the most intellectually curious curators I have ever come across. He works so hard and has accomplished so much in a relatively short period of time. And that should be much more important than whether or not you like his pants.

Anonymous said...

"I have an abhorrence of both consumer culture and infantilism".
And he's an art critic in 2009?
LMAO!

Anonymous said...

The interview quoted above was a parody and acknowledged as such btw

Anonymous said...

Joao won an AICA Award for Best Exhibition this year:

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/33471/aica-names-exhibitions-of-the-year/

And that's two years in a row.

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/30097/winners-of-aica-awards-announced/

Anonymous said...

i heart joao.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Kindly remove last comment. It was a bad joke gone wrong. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I'm super stoked he curated Frances Stark's FIRST US Retrospective. FS is amazing.

Anonymous said...

I am in LOVE WITH JOAO RIBAAAASS.