Trevor Schoonmaker

Trevor Schoonmaker is the Artistic Director of the U.S. Triennial, Prospect New Orleans (Prospect.4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp), open November 18, 2017, through February 25, 2018. He is also the Chief Curator and Patsy R. and Raymond D. Nasher Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. Hired in 2006 as its first contemporary art curator, he has been instrumental in shaping the museum’s curatorial vision and contemporary art collection. His Nasher Museum exhibitions include Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art, co-curated with Miranda Lash, Curator of Contemporary Art of the Speed Art Museum (2016); Reality of My Surroundings: The Contemporary Collection (2015); Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey (2013); The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl (2010); Christian Marclay: Video Quartet (2009); Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool (2008); and Street Level: Mark Bradford, William Cordova & Robin Rhode (2007).

Prior to joining the Nasher Museum, Schoonmaker’s exhibitions included The Beautiful Game: Contemporary Art and Fútbol, co-curated with Franklin Sirmans (2006); DTroit (2003); Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti (2003); and The Magic City (2000). His exhibitions have been presented at museums in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Durham, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manchester, and London. He is the editor of several exhibition catalogues as well as the book Fela: From West Africa to West Broadway (2003). In 2001 he cofounded New York’s first Afrobeat club night Jump N Funk with DJ Rich Medina, and in 2013 he curated the artwork for Luaka Bop’s LP release of Who is William Onyeabor? Schoonmaker serves on the board of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Photo Credit: Sophie Lvoff