Exhibit Columbus announces 2020-2021 Curatorial Fellowship

Exhibit Columbus announces its inaugural Curatorial Fellowship—a new platform that invites international leaders in architecture, art, and design to bring a critical, research-based perspective to this celebrated program that is the centerpiece of Landmark Columbus Foundation.

The 2020-2021 Exhibit Columbus Curators are Iker Gil, founder of MAS Studio and the nonprofit MAS Context and executive director of the SOM Foundation, and Mimi Zeiger, a Los Angeles-based critic, editor, and curator. Gil and Zeiger bring an extensive background in researching and creating exhibitions and publications around architecture and design through themes related to alternative histories of modernism, cities and the urgencies of civic space, resiliency, and connectivity.

“Exhibit Columbus is excited to build upon its first two cycles by introducing new curatorial voices to the third iteration of the program through the Curatorial Fellowship. As curators, Mimi and Iker bring a great interest in Columbus’ design legacy and an enthusiasm for this city as a context for experimentation and collaboration,” said Anne Surak, Exhibit Columbus Director. “They also bring a deep understanding of the ways architecture and design, at a variety of scales, shape our cities and inform the ways we relate to each other. Now more than ever, this innovative addition allows us to strengthen our ability to engage locally, while simultaneously considering the program from a global perspective.”

Working alongside the Exhibit Columbus team, the co-curators will develop the curatorial theme and shape the upcoming two-year cycle of programming, which will include a 2020 Symposium this fall (hosted virtually and/or with some in-person events—more details to be announced this summer) and the 2021 Exhibition, scheduled to take place next year from August 20–November 28, 2021.

“What makes Columbus’ design history so unique is the investment in architecture as a social project,” says Gil and Zeiger. “We are thrilled to join the Exhibit Columbus team and the Columbus community to shape conversations, installations, and research honoring this past, while recognizing the complex social and ecological issues facing American towns and cities at this very moment. And it is through architecture and design—through the symposium and exhibition—that we hope to explore meaningful and necessary ways forward.”

Exhibit Columbus will continue to closely monitor health recommendations related to COVID-19 in effort to produce programs that engage its audiences and the Columbus community in a safe manner throughout the 2020-21 cycle of programming.

Iker Gil, 2020-21 Exhibit Columbus Curator

Iker Gil is a Chicago-based architect, editor, and curator. He is the director of MAS Studio, a collaborative architecture and design firm as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of the design journal MAS Context. He teaches architecture studios at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and, since 2019, he is the executive director of the SOM Foundation. Gil has collaborated with architects, artists, and designers on projects including Geometry of Light at the Barcelona Pavilion and Farnsworth House, Inside Marina City, and the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin signage standards. Gil was the Associate Curator of the US Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. He has curated exhibitions at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Graham Foundation, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Mimi Zeiger, 2020-21 Exhibit Columbus Curator

Mimi Zeiger is a Los Angeles-based critic, editor, and curator. She was co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Curatorial projects include Soft Schindler at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and Now, There: Scenes from the Post-Geographic City, which received the Bronze Dragon award at the 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen. Zeiger has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Architectural Review, Metropolis, and Architect. She is an opinion columnist for Dezeen and former West Coast Editor of The Architects Newspaper. Zeiger is the 2015 recipient of the Bradford Williams Medal for excellence in writing about landscape architecture. She is faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and in the Media Design Practices MFA program at Art Center College of Design.