Lecture
Anthony Elms
Ballroom Marfa presented a lecture by Anthony Elms at the Marfa Book Company in which Elms discussed his work as a curator, editor and artist. More specifically he addressed his work in White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart, at the ICA in Philadelphia. The exhibition, which featured Genesis P Orrige, Bernadette Corporation, Dexter Sinister, Zoe Leonard, Erin Leland and Frances Stark, among others, presented the work of artists engaged with clothing, adornment, and self-presentation within the context of identity.
Ballroom Marfa’s Lecture Series is an ongoing program for artists, authors and curators to present perspectives on contemporary culture, visual arts, film, music, and performance.
Speaker Profile
Anthony Elms
Anthony Elms is Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and is also the editor of WhiteWalls, an independent publisher distributed through the University of Chicago Press. Previously he worked for Performa 11 and was Assistant Director at Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois at Chicago for five years. His writings have appeared in Afterall, Art Asia Pacific, Art Papers, Artforum, Cakewalk, May Revue, Modern Painters, New Art Examiner, and Time Out Chicago, and he has also written essays for numerous catalogs and collections. He has independently curated exhibitions as well, including: Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-68 (with John Corbett and Terri Kapsalis); Interstellar Low Ways (with Huey Copeland); Can Bigfoot Get You a Beer? and A Unicorn Basking in the Light of Three Glowing Suns (both with Philip von Zweck). Elms has also taught visual arts seminars at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received a BFA in painting from Michigan State University and an MFA from the University of Chicago, and he continues to exhibit as an artist. His work was part of the group exhibition White Petals Surround Your Yellow Heart at the ICA Philadelphia.
