The Block Museum is excited to introduce our 2016-2017 graduate curatorial fellow, Talia Shabtay. As a part of her fellowship, Shabtay is putting together an exhibition in the museum’s Katz Gallery that will open in January 2017 and enlist the themes of her research, particularly the relation between vision and memory.

Shabtay acquired her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts and Master’s in Fine Arts from the Tyler School of Art and Ohio State University, respectively, specializing in painting and sculpture. After taking some time off of school to work in the museum field, specifically in education and community outreach at Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts, she completed a Master’s in Art History at the University of Connecticut. Shabtay has participated in workshops on the history of cinema and migration at the University of Cologne, Germany, and is a member of the program in Critical Theory at Northwestern. She has published in Oxford Art Journal on American photographer and filmmaker Allan Sekula, and presented her work at institutions across the US and Canada.

“I was interested in participating in a more socially-engaged, historical dialogue about other people’s art in addition to making my own,” said Shabtay.

Currently in her third year pursuing her PhD in Art History at Northwestern University, Shabtay specializes in the history, theory and criticism of late modernism and contemporary art with interests in the relationships between vision, urbanism and the public sphere. Her research examines how forgotten spaces, particularly those associated with post-industrial landscapes, are remembered in the work of contemporary artists. By analyzing artists and artworks from across the US and Europe, she asks whether this remembering or projecting works to obscure or reconstruct spatial knowledge. Shabtay is delighted to be joining the Block team at this exciting moment, and looks forward to contributing to exhibitions and programs that engage and productively challenge the Northwestern community and beyond.

Profile by Block Museum Communications Assistant, Abigail Kamen