Carnegie International Names Curator For Next Edition

Sohrab Mohebbi, a writer and most recently the curator at the SculptureCenter in New York, has been selected to organize the 58th Carnegie International, opening in 2022. The Carnegie International is organized by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is the United States’s longest-running large-scale exhibition of contemporary art, dating back to 1896 when it was an annual event. 

Born in Iran, Mohebbi was, until his appointment to the Carnegie International, overseeing the exhibitions, educational and public programs, and publications at the SculptureCenter in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, where he recently staged a monographic exhibition for Banu Cennetoğlu. Prior to that, as associate curator at REDCAT Los Angeles, Mohebbi co-curated with Thomas Keenan the group exhibition “It is obvious from the map,” which examined the role of map-making in the movements of large numbers of people from the conflict zones of the Middle East and Africa toward Europe. Despite relocating to Pittsburgh, Mohebbi will retain a position at the SculptureCenter as curator at large.

In an interview with ArtNews, Mohebbi said that research for the International would focus on ideas of “reconstitution,” in both ecological and postcolonial frameworks, and “decentralization,” which will entail partnerships with other cultural organizations. Eric Crosby, the recently appointed head of the Carnegie Museum of Art, said that the International would now take place every four years to allow Pittsburgh’s many university students to experience at least one of them. 

Previously, Mohebbi organized exhibitions and programs for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, High Desert Test Sites in Joshua Tree, California; SALT in Istanbul; and the Center for Historical Reenactments, a collaborative platform based in Johannesburg, South Africa. In collaboration with Ruth Estévez, he curated “Hotel Theory,” which explored the performance of theory as a contemporary art form and won the The Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award in 2013.

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