Kirsty Ogg

Kirsty is interested in the intersection of emerging art practice, arts education and access.

Staff details

Kirsty Ogg

Position

Lecturer in Curating

Department

Art

Email

k.ogg (@gold.ac.uk)

Kirsty Ogg is an independent curator, consultant and educator. She is currently Mimosa House’s Interim Director a space that promotes diversity and access. Kirsty was Director of New Contemporaries (2013-’23), an organisation offering support and exposure to emerging artists. As Director, Kirsty significantly expanded the offer to artists, from the annual exhibition to encompass a range of other development opportunities.

Kirsty was Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London (’09-’13) curating projects such as Claire Barclay’s Bloomberg Commission, Gerard Byrne’s mid-career survey, an historical exhibition of Karl Blossfeldt’s photography and a year-long series of collection displays with Contemporary Art Society. As former Director of The Showroom, London (1998-’08) she worked with artists including Barby Asante, Diann Bauer, Subodh Gupta and Eva Rothschild.

Prior to this, Kirsty was part of Transmission Gallery, Glasgow (’93-’96) before joining Norwich Gallery, Norwich (’96-’98).

Research interests

Kirsty is interested in the intersection of emerging art practice, arts education and access. These interests are framed by her background in grassroots DIY artist-led organisations and cultures. Understanding and overcoming the socio-economic, cultural and other systemic barriers, which currently exist that prevent the emergence of such activity or the progression of artists is a central concern.

In addition to Kirsty's work providing strategic and development support to artist-led organisations, she is currently exploring the parallels between artist-led cultures and pre-18th century egalitarian pirate communities. A central question is, what might the arts ecology learn from the ideas of radical democracy that were utilised in the Golden Age of Piracy, and how could these be applied to contemporary curatorial and institutional practices?

Publications and research outputs

Book

Book Section

Article

Project

Exhibition Catalogue

Show/Exhibition

  • Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022 Ogg, Kirsty. 2022. Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022. In: "Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2022", Humber Street Gallery, United Kingdom, 23 September - 27 November 2022 and 9 December 2022 - 12 March 2023.
  • Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021 Ogg, Kirsty. 2021. Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. In: "Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021", Firstsite, Colchester, United Kingdom, 25 September - 28 November 2021 and 10 December 2021 - 20 February 2022.
  • Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020 Ogg, Kirsty; da Cunha, Alexandre; Hamilton, Anthea and Sterling, Linder. 2021. Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020. In: "Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2020", South London Gallery, United Kingdom, 19 May - 6 June 2021.

Conference or Workshop Item

Digital

Edited Book

Performance

  • New Writing with New Contemporaries Ogg, Kirsty; Browning, Jude; Cunningham, Lucy Rose; Dooley, Freya; Harvey, Malachy; Hermitt, Leo; Lewis, Ruby and Thurston, Nick. 2019. New Writing with New Contemporaries. In: "New Writing with New Contemporaries", Leeds Art Gallery, United Kingdom, 9 November 2019 and 25 January 2020.

Professional Activity