Nicholas Tsoutas

Biography

As a director of four major art centres in Australia; Artspace, The Institute of Modern Art, The Performance Space and The Casula Powerhouse, as well as being an independent curator and writer, Tsoutas's main areas of interest and expertise are in the areas of conceptual and installation art, performance art, contemporary postmodern theory and criticism, with a particular emphasis on post-colonial critique in relation to globalisation, mobility, cultural exchange, hybridity and cultural diversity. His practice has been informed through the intertextual processes of interdisciplinary border crossing and intervention. His professional commitments have been defined through his privileging of and emphasis on the creative capacities of artists and an innovative approach to shaping the critical transaction of their ideas.

His national and international professional commitments, which include lecturing, conference projects, board and network representations and editing and publishing critical texts, have been defined through his privileging of and emphasis on the creative capacities of artists, the intrinsic valuing of the studio process and an innovative approach to shaping the critical transaction of their ideas. As a curator he has a commitment to working with artists closely in the development of their work and their projects, through to the installation of their exhibitions.

Tsoutas has consistently delivered professional practice lectures to graduating students to facilitate pathways into the industry and assist their practice and career development. The gallery space becomes a mechanism and tool for the delivery of curriculum and professional development opportunities.

Research

Tsoutas's professional experience as curator and executive director in the major contemporary art spaces in Australia has constantly been defined through the exploration and articulation of cross art forms, culturally diverse communities, and in interdisciplinary contexts.

For him, contemporary visual practice is about creating a space for dialogue and knowledge that has the capacity to challenge our understandings of the world we live in and the diversity of cultures that construct it. He has long been engaged with the debates on cultural diversity and has participated in policy development as well as contributed to the processes of how we curate difference. Contemporary art creates a propositional space, an open and public space where communities can come together in a productive and transparent environment to discuss the positions and cultural models constructed by artists and cultural thinkers in a way that transforms our understandings of each other, of the space that we share, inhabit and co-exist in, and of a commitment to the inclusivity of a range of voices, positions and cultures.

Recent Exhibitions

Australian, Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, April–September 2008

Fish/Bird Circle B - Movement C, Mari Velonaki,Artspace, Sydney, 2005

Better Worlds The Making of Utopia, Tellervo Kelleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Artspace, Sydney, 2005

Image Smugglers in a Free Territory, Sao Paolo Bienal, Sao Paolo, 2004

Australian Project Space ARCO, ARCO, Madrid, 2002

Desert Rain, Blast Theory, Artspace, Sydney, 2002

Ping, Stelarc, Artspace, Sydney, 1998

Water from the Mouth, Mike Parr, Artspace, Sydney, 2001

Kickflipping Flaneur, Shaun Gladwell, Artspace, Sydney , 2000

The Violence of the Image, Jean Baudrillard Photographic Exhibition, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 1994

Publications

'Dakar Biennale', Keynote Speaker, Dakar Biennale, 2006

'Australian, Casula Powerhouse', 2009
ISBN 9780980682816

'Knowledge+Dialogue+Exchange: Remapping Cultural Globalism from the South',
Artspace and Res Artis, 2005
ISBN 1920781 17

'Complex Entanglements: Art Globalisation and Cultural Difference', River Oram Press, 2001
ISBN 854891537

'Empires, Ruins + Networks: The Transcultural Agenda in Art', Melbourne University Press and River Orams Press, 2005

'100 Years of Cruelty: Antonin Artaud', Artspace, Sydney and Power Publications, 1996
ISBN 1864872918

'Blood Box, Mike Parr', Artspace, 2006
ISBN 1876017635

'Republics of Ideas', Artspace and Pluto Press, 2001
ISBN 1864031859

Professional Membership

Res Artis, Executive board member, 2010
Kultour National Multicultural Touring Agency, Chair, 2008
CAOs, Chair and treasurer, 2003
Australia Council Multicultural Arts Commitee, Board member, 2001
MA Research Committee, COFA, UNSW, Chair, 1998