LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Museum of Contemporary Art announced that Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles joins MOCA’s Board of Trustees.
Artists play a critical role at MOCA and have served as full voting members of MOCA’s Board of Trustees since the museum’s inception over 40 years ago. Internationally-recognized artist Quarles joins the MOCA Board at an important moment of expansion, joining MOCA’s Board of 39 other voting members, including fellow artist Trustees Mark Bradford, Mark Grotjahn, and Barbara Kruger.
“I look forward to working with Christina in furtherance of the Museum’s mission as we expand our institution’s reach into the artistic and broader community,” MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach said.
“Artist representation on our board is an essential part of MOCA’s history and DNA since its founding over 40 years ago. We are thrilled to warmly welcome Christina as a fellow trustee to our board. Christina brings a wealth of experience and a unique point of view, and we all look forward to working together,” said MOCA Board Chair Maria Seferian.
“I am so proud and happy to be joining MOCA’s Board at this significant moment, as Los Angeles begins to reopen and we embrace the ever-rising standards of accountability, transparency, and inclusion,” said Christina Quarles.
Quarles’ appointment continues MOCA’s commitment to artist representation on its board, while Catherine Opie rotates off MOCA’s Board at the end of her term.
Seferian also thanked Opie for her time, noting: “On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees, I want to express my deep gratitude to Cathy for her friendship and invaluable contributions to our board, the museum, and our community. We are very proud of Cathy’s appointment as Chair of the UCLA Department of Art and expect that she will bring the same commitment to inclusion, transparency, and governance to UCLA that she brought to MOCA.”
During Opie’s tenure on the MOCA Board, she played an active role on the Executive Committee, the Education Committee, Search Committees, and more broadly as a member of the Board of Trustees. Opie will continue serving on MOCA’s Search Committee for the new Executive Director and she will remain engaged for at least one year as a mentor emerita to Quarles on the MOCA Board.
“Christina will be an amazing addition to MOCA’s Board, bringing a fresh perspective and new ideas,” said Catherine Opie. “Although I must roll off my term on the Board of Trustees, MOCA remains an essential museum in Los Angeles and the world. I have a deep love for MOCA and will continue to support all the important work it does.”
Christina Quarles (b. 1985, Chicago) lives and works in Los Angeles. She received an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Art in 2016 and holds a B.A. from Hampshire College. Quarles was a 2016 participant at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture. She was the inaugural recipient of the 2019 Pérez Art Museum Miami Prize and in 2017 she received the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant.
Quarles’ work is currently featured in a solo exhibition at MCA Chicago and will travel to the Frye Art Museum in 2022. Her solo exhibition, In Likeness, at the South London Gallery is also on view, previously at the Hepworth Wakefield in 2019. Recent exhibitions include: Christina Quarles: Dance by tha Light of tha Moon, X Museum, Beijing (2021), Christina Quarles: Every Silver Lining Has Its Cloud, Pond Society, Shanghai (2019); In Likeness, Hepworth Wakefield (2019); Christina Quarles / MATRIX 271, UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (2018); Made in L.A., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Trigger: Gender as a Tool and as a Weapon, New Museum, New York (2017-18); and Fictions, The Studio Museum, New York (2017), among others.
