Ron Platt

Ron Platt is the Hugh Kaul Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art. As curator he develops and implements long term goals and objectives for the BMA’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, organizes and implements exhibitions, and oversees collections development. Prior to joining the BMA, Platt was Curator of Exhibitions at the Weatherspoon Art Museum (1999-2004), the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (1996-1999); and Assistant Curator at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center (1992-96).

Among the nearly fifty exhibitions and/or residencies Platt has organized include shows with Jim Hodges (which traveled to Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery; Austin Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland); Luca Buvoli; Yasumasa Morimura and Gajin Fujita; Sheila Pepe; Amy Pleasant, Dona Nelson; Tom Friedman (traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Aspen Art Museum; Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York); Inigo Manglano-Ovalle; Whitfield Lovell; and Maria Fernanda Cardosa, and an upcoming project with Dawoud Bey. Thematic group exhibitions include LA Tattoo: 1950-1990, for the Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles (2012); Borne of Necessity; Lab Results: Three Artists’ Residencies in the Sciences; and Face to Face: Recent Abstract Painting.

Platt’s related professional activities include serving as juror for “American Painting 2009” (also 2003), and for Magic City Art Connection, 2007; curator for Tattoos and Contemporary Culture for the Asheville Art Museum (2006); as panelist for Creative Capital’s Artists Grants and for the Altoids, “Curiously Strong Collection.” Platt is an inaugural member of the American Contemporary Curator’s Council (2001-), and served from 2000-2002 on the Étant donnés Artistic Committee.

Platt holds degrees from Lesley College, Cambridge, (MBA in Arts Administration); and the University of Maryland, College Park. (BA in American Studies)