Stefan Kalmár

Under Kalmár’s directorship, the ICA signed the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge and became an accredited Living Wage employer.[6] The ICA cinema became fully independent and live performance, theatre and literature were reintroduced to the ICA programme.[7]

In an interview published in Frieze in 2017, Kalmár outlined his future ambitions for the ICA to be an organization that revitalizes the belief and the civic responsibility of cultural institutions by trying to create an organizational structure that not only disclaims its own contradictions but actively tries to overcome them.[8]

Named in ArtReview's 2019 Power 100, Kalmár commented, 'We are in a time of crisis' in reference to Brexit and the rise of populism, and stated that 'these are times for artists to lead' regarding the announcement of Wolfgang Tillmans' appointment as Chair of the ICA's Board.[9]

Notable exhibitions during Kalmár’s tenure include presentations on and collaborations with artists and curators such as Chris Kraus and Julie Ault, Danh Vo, Bernadette Corporation, Cameron Rowland, Laura Poitras, Zilia Sánchez, Lukas Duwenhögger, Marc Camille Chaimowicz and The Estate of Charlotte Posenenske.[10] In a review of the Charlotte Posenenske exhibition, The New York Times art critic, Roberta Smith, wrote, 'It occurred to me that if Alfred H. Barr Jr., founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, were dropped into Mr. Kalmár’s shoes, he would have come up with something similar'.[11]

In 2016 Kalmár said that Artists Space has been increasingly involved in addressing the interplay and blurred lines between contemporary art and political practice with a focus on gentrification and how contemporary arts organisations “institutionalise antagonisms.” Artists Space and Common Practice invited artists Nitasha Dhillon and Amin Husain of the collective MTL+ to facilitate programming that would unite activist groups across the city under five “strands”: Indigenous Struggle, Black Liberation, Free Palestine, Global Wage Workers, and De-Gentrification.[12]

In 2012, Kalmár introduced a second location, Artists Space Books & Talks, which has become a platform for critical discussion in contemporary art and culture.[13]

Artists Space’s 2012 exhibition Radical Localism: Art, Video and Culture From Pueblo Nuevo’s Mexicali Rose, was described by The New York Times as ‘a small but vigorous sampling of what is emerging’ from Mexicali Rose, an alternative art space and community centre established by the filmmaker Marco Vera in Pueblo Nuevo, a working-class neighbourhood in Mexicali, a city on the Mexican side of the border with the United States.[14]

• Lukas Duwenhögger: Undoolay (2016) with Raven Row[15]
• Cameron Rowland: 91020000 (2016)[16]
• Tom of Finland: The Pleasure of Play (2015) toured to Taidehalli, Helsinki [17]
• Hito Steyerl (2015)[18]
• Laura Poitras: 9/11 Trilogy (2014)[19]
• Living with Pop: A Reproduction of Capitalism Realism with Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2014)[20]
• Sam Pulitzer: A Colony for “Them” (2014)[21]
• Macho Man Tell It To My Heart: Collected by Julie Ault (2013)[22]
• Aaron Flint Jamison (2013)[23]
• Zilia Sánchez (2013)[24]
• Bernadette Corporation: 2000 Wasted Years (2012) toured to ICA London[25]
• Radical Localism: Art, Video & Culture from Pueblo’s Mexicali Rose, Curated by Chris Kraus (2012)[26]
• Dexter Sinister: Identity (2011 - 2012)[27]
• Anarchism Without Adjectives On the Work of Christopher D’Arcangelo 1975-1979 (2012)[28]
• Hilary Lloyd (2011)[29]
• Mark Morrisroe: From Tis Moment On with Fotomuseum Winterthur (2011)[30]
• Sean Snyder (2010)[31]
• Danh Vo: Autoerotic Asphyxiation (2010)[32]
• Charlotte Posenenske (2010)[33]
• Duncan Campbell: Make It New John (2010)[34]
• Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Enough Tiranny Recalled 1972 – 2009 (2009)[35]

• Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a Short Scenario (2008) with Witte de With, Kunsthalle Zürich, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago[36]
• Allora & Calzadilla: Wake Up, Clamor, Sediments, Sentiments (Figures of Speech) In collaboration with Haus der Kunst (2008)[37]
• Oh Girl, It’s a Boy! (2007) together with Henrik Oleson[38]
• Wolfgang Tillmans Beugung (2007)[39]
• The Secret Public The Last Days of the British Underground 1979 - 1989 (2006), toured to ICA London[40]
• An American Family, in collaboration with Alan Raymond (2006)[41]
• General Idea 1967-1995, In collaboration with Barbara Fischer & Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver (2006)[42]
• Jeremy Deller (2005)[43]
• Icestorm (2005)[44]

• Wittgenstein: Family likenesses (2004)[45]
• Tom Burr: The Screens (2003)[46]
• No Ghost Just a Shell, In Collaboration with Kunsthalle Zürich and SF MoMA (2002-2003)[47]
• Cognition Control: from the Archive of Stephen Willats (2002)[48]
• Angela Bulloch: Horizontal Technicolor (2002)[49]
• Nils Norman: Geocruiser together with South London Gallery, Venice Biennial, Ikon Gallery, Peckham Library; Galerie für Landschaftkunst Hamburg (2001)[50]

• Jochen Klein retrospective (1999)[51]
• Infected Culture (1998)[52]
• Artists Groups II: KLAT (1998)[53]
• Artists Groups I: Akademie Isotrope (1997)[53]

• Art in the Social Welfare Office: Carsten Höller, Franz West, Peter Land, Social Welfare Office, Hanover (1996)[54]