Curator

Daria Khan

We are delighted to have Daria Khan on board as the curator of the Young Masters Art Prize 2012 exhibition. Daria’s well-respected curatorial practice spans an international arena. Born and raised in Russia, but familiar with the artistic cultures of Italy and France, she is currently living in London whilst completing the MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art. She studied art history in her native country and travelled to Italy, via Paris, in her exploration of art. In the period 2006  - 2008 Daria worked at the Cazeau-Beraudiere Gallery in Paris, organising an exhibition of Modern art at Alfa Bank in Moscow, Russia. The exhibition featured work by major Modernist artists (among them Mark Rothko, Vassily Kandinsky, Chaim Soutine and Fernand Leger) and was received to great acclaim, most notably for its transformation of an office space into an intimate museum. Since 2010, she has held the post of curator at the Spazio Carbonesi Foundation in Bologna, a cutting-edge contemporary art gallery that hosts exhibitions of Russian and international art.

In 2011 Daria curated SVOBODA at Spazio Carbonesi, an exhibition that investigated the ways in which ‘freedom’ is articulated and understood by contemporary Russian artists. The exhibition presented a rigorous conceptual exploration of the nature of ‘freedom’ in relation to Russia’s past and Soviet heritage. The interaction of space and art played a crucial role, playing upon the spatial boundaries of the exhibition space to full effect. ‘SVOBODA’ coincided with the prestigious city-wide cultural event, Arte Fiera Bologna.

Daria is currently working on the Twin Mind exhibition which will go on display in Bologna in early 2012. The show raises the question of coincidences in art and hosts works by two artists: Julia Zastava (Russia) and Emiliano Maggi (Italy). These two individuals will be united by the spiritual parallelism in their artistic vision in a single space – the Ballroom of the Palazzo Zambeccari – and in an indissoluble site-specific installation.

For more information about Spazio Carbonesi, see: http://www.spaziocarbonesi.it/