Visiting-Artist Lecture: Matthew Higgs

Born in the U.K., Higgs trained and worked as an artist before also becoming known for his independent publishing and curatorial projects that raised the profile of emerging artists through the 1990s.

In 2001 Higgs relocated to San Francisco. While there he became curator of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of the Arts, and later the co-chair of the college’s MFA program. Now he lives and works in New York as director of the nonprofit art space White Columns.

For nearly twenty years, Higgs has shown consistent ways to support artists, artist-groups, and curators through his writing, interviews, curating, and teaching as well as his reinvention and ongoing development of White Columns as a space for people to experiment with the presentation of new ideas and work.

Since 1992 Higgs has organized more than 250 artists' projects and exhibitions and written for more than 50 publications and art magazines. He tirelessly makes studio visits and proposes projects with new and overlooked artists, including a group of developmentally disabled artists from the nonprofit organization Creative Growth.