Thomas Trevor (born 1962) is a British art curator and writer on contemporary art. Trevor is Associate Professor of Contemporary Art and Curation at the University of Exeter.
He was previously Artistic Director of The Atlantic Project, in Plymouth, UK (2016–19), Guest Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2015–16), Artistic Director of the 4th Dojima River Biennale in Osaka, Japan (2014–15), curatorial consultant to the 1st ARoS Triennial in Aarhus, Denmark (2014–15), Guest Curator at the Devi Art Foundation in Delhi, India (2013–14), Director of Arnolfini in Bristol, UK (2005–13), Associate Curator of the Art Fund International collection (2007–12) and Director of Spacex (1999–2005) in Exeter, UK. Before that he was an independent curator based in London (1994–1999), initiating projects for institutions such as Camden Arts Centre, the Freud Museum and InIVA. Since the 1990s, Trevor has curated more than 100 exhibitions, placing a particular emphasis upon experimental, interdisciplinary practice and context-led projects. Solo exhibitions include Cosima von Bonin, Matti Braun, Angus Fairhurst, Jutta Koether, Joelle Tuerlinckx, and Lois Weinberger. Group exhibitions include The Visible & the Invisible (1996), the Home Series (2000–04), Port City (2007), Far West (2008), Museum Show (2011), No Borders (2012) and Version Control (2013).
Biography
Trevor studied Fine Art at the Ruskin, University of Oxford and Goldsmiths College, University of London. As an artist based in London, in the 1990s, he participated in various group exhibitions, such as East Country Yard Show (1990), with contemporaries including Liam Gillick, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas and Gillian Wearing. In 1996 he co-curated a multi-site project, The Visible & the Invisible: representing the body in contemporary art & society, produced by InIVA, that took place in non-art locations around Euston, London, including first UK presentations by Tania Bruguera and Doris Salcedo, along with site-specific installations by Louise Bourgeois, Bruce Nauman, Yoko Ono, Donald Rodney and others.
At Spacex, from June 1999, Trevor curated more than 50 exhibitions and "off-site" projects, placing a particular emphasis upon socially-engaged, context-based work. Multi-site projects included Patterns (2001), with Samta Benyahia and Zineb Sedira, and Homeland (2004), presenting site-specific work by 44 artists in 8 different everyday locations. He also curated projects for the Liverpool Biennial; Generator (2002), Hortus (2004) and, later, Far West Metro (2008); and for Frieze Art Fair (2005) (with new film commissions by Yang Fudong, Mark Leckey, Daria Martin, Jimmy Robert, Imogen Stidworthy and Mika Taanila).
From October 2005 Trevor was Director of Arnolfini, overseeing a visual arts-led multidisciplinary programme of exhibitions, performance, dance, music and film, with a public programme of talks, seminars and learning & participation activities. In 2011, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, Sir Nicholas Serota described Arnolfini as "one of a handful of the most significant contemporary cultural centres in Europe". Long-term context-led projects in the city of Bristol include Maria Thereza Alves' Ballast Seed Garden (2007 ongoing) and Suzanne Lacy's University of Local Knowledge (2009 ongoing). Trevor left Arnolfini in October 2013, after 8 years, to focus on developing curatorial projects internationally. The first of these, Black Sun (co-curated with Shezad Dawood), opened at the Devi Art Foundation, in Delhi, India, in November 2013.
Trevor's recent curatorial projects include The Atlantic Project "After The Future", a large-scale context-led project across the city of Plymouth, in the autumn of 2018, featuring site-specific installations by twenty artists from twelve countries, "Music for Museums", a series of performances, films and sound interventions taking place throughout the Whitechapel Gallery, London, during the autumn of 2015, and "Take Me To The River" for the 4th Dojima River Biennale, in Osaka, opening in July 2015, with artists from eight countries showing alongside established and emerging Japanese practitioners. Other projects in 2015 include John Akomfrah's Vertigo Sea (Associate Producer), commissioned for the 56th Venice Biennale, and a large-scale architectural commission by Do Ho Suh for the Art Fund International collection (Associate Curator) at Bristol Museum. In 2014 Trevor was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Gwangju Biennale and a member of the jury for the Korea Artists Prize at the national Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.
Trevor was conferred a Doctorate of Letters (DLitt) at the University of Exeter in July 2014. He has lectured widely, including talks in Aarhus, Beijing, Beirut, Bridgetown, Faenza, Seoul, Tehran, Venice, Yokohama and Zurich. In 2012 he was a visiting lecturer on the Gwangju Biennale International Curators Course, and in 2013 he gave the 4th ARKO lecture in Seoul, South Korea. He has written numerous articles and produced more than 40 publications. He founded the Concept Store journal in 2008.
Exhibitions 2018 The Atlantic Project: After The Future, 28 September-23 October 2018, various locations across Plymouth, UK. Artists: Nilbar Güreş, Tommy Støckel, Liu Chuang (artist), Hito Steyerl, Vermeir & Heiremans, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Ryoji Ikeda, , Donald Rodney, Shezad Dawood, Postcommodity, Carl Slater, Superflex, Uriel Orlow, Jane Grant & John Matthias, Khadija von Zinnenburg Carroll, Chang Jia, Ursula Biemann, Bryony Gillard, Kranemann + Emmett 2017 SUPERFLEX: FREE BEER version 6.0 (the Atlantic brew), 2 October ongoing, launched at Tate Modern, London. A Good Neighbour, 22 September-16 November 2017, The Atlantic Project, Plymouth, UK. Artists: Elmgreen & Dragset with Lukas Wassmann 2015 Music for Museums, 17 September–29 November 2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London. Artists: Apartment House, David Toop, Gavin Bryars & Etel Adnan, Cara Tolmie, Mikhail Karikis, Florian Hecker, Hassan Khan, Ryoji Ikeda & Carsten Nicolai, Oliver Coates, Mark Fell, Dominic Murcott, Thurston Moore, Rhys Chatham + sound interventions by Support Structure + an artists’ film & video programme Take Me To The River, 24 July–30 August 2015, 4th Dojima River Biennale, Osaka. Artists: Aki Sasamoto, Angus Fairhurst, Hito Steyerl, Melanie Gilligan, Melanie Jackson, Michael Stevenson, Peter Fend, Ryoji Ikeda, Shimabuku, Shitamichi Motoyuki, Simon Fujiwara, SUPERFLEX, The Play, Vermeir & Heiremans, Yuken Teruya John Akomfrah: Vertigo Sea (Associate Producer), 9 May–22 November 2015, 56th Venice Biennale 2013 Black Sun (co-curated with Shezad Dawood), 9 November 2013 – 27 April 2014, Devi Art Foundation, Delhi. Artists: Ayisha Abraham, Ashish Avikunthak, Matti Braun, James Lee Byars, Maya Deren, Zarina Hashmi, Runa Islam, Nasreen Mohamedi, Lisa Oppenheim, The Otolith Group, Tejal Shah, Alexandre Singh Joelle Tuerlinckx: Wor(l)d(k) in Progress (co-curated with Axel Wieder), 7 December 2013 – 16 March 2014, Arnolfini, Bristol (in collaboration with Wiels, Brussels, and Haus der Kunst, Munich) Jutta Koether: Seasons and Sacraments (co-curated with Axel Wieder), 4 May–7 July 2013, Arnolfini (in collaboration with Dundee Contemporary Arts) Version Control (co-curated with Axel Wieder), 26 January–14 April 2013, Arnolfini. Artists: AP News, Giles Bailey, Gretchen Bender, Bernadette Corporation, Gerry Bibby, Ruth Buchanan, Antoine Catala, Nicolas Ceccaldi, Simon Denny, Tim Etchells, Loretta Fahrenholz, Felix Gmelin, Grand Openings, Andy Holden & David Conroy, Louise Hervé & Chloé Maillet, Morag Keil, Oliver Laric, Louise Lawler, Tobias Madison & Emanuel Rossetti, Eva & Franco Mattes, Melvin Moti, Rabih Mroué, Ken Okiishi, Amalia Pica, Seth Price and Nora Schultz 2012 No Borders, 15 December 2012 – 2 June 2013, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Artists: Ai Weiwei, Walid Raad, Haegue Yang, Akram Zaatari, Yto Barrada, Hala Elkoussy, Shilpa Gupta, Amar Kanwar, Tala Madani, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Imran Qu’reshi and Shahzia Sikander Matti Braun: Gost Log (co-curated with Axel Wieder), 3 October 2012 – 6 January 2013, Arnolfini 2011 Museum Show (co-curated with Nav Haq), Part 1: 24 September–19 November 2011, and Part 2: 9 December 2011 – 19 February 2012, Arnolfini, Bristol and off-site. Artists: Abake, Guillaume Bijl, Peter Blake, Stuart Brisley, Marcel Broodthaers, Bill Burns, James Lee Byars, Francois Curlet, Jaime Davidovich, Herbert Distel, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Filliou, Simon Fujiwara, Meschac Gaba, Ellen Harvey, Susan Hiller, Marko Lulic, Karen Mirza and Brad Butler, Forrest Myers, Tom Marioni, Asuncion Molinos, Sina Najafi and Christopher Turner, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Khalil Rabah, Vicente Razo, Øyvind Renberg and Miho Shimizu, Tomas Saraceno, Sarkis, the Museum of American Art, Maarten Vanden Eynde, Hu Xiangqian Magical Consciousness (co-curated with Runa Islam and Nav Haq), 12 May – 3 July 2011, Arnolfini. Artists: Helena Almeida, Rosa Barba, Uta Barth, Angela Bulloch, Mariana Castillo Deball, Ula Dajerling, Matias Faldbakken, Ellen Harvey, John Hilliard, William E. Jones, Onkar Kular & Noam Toran, David Maljkovic, Melik Ohanian, Trevor Paglen, Peter Peri, Rosângela Rennó and Mungo Thomson, plus a 13th-century Aztec obsidian mirror Cosima von Bonin's Bone Idle for Arnolfini's Sloth section, Loop #2 of the Lazy Susan series, a Rotating Exhibition 2010-2012 (co-curated with Nav Haq), 19 February–25 April 2011, Arnolfini, in collaboration with Witte de With (Rotterdam), MAMCO (Geneva) and Museum Ludwig (Cologne) Neil Cummings: Self-Portrait: Arnolfini (co-curated with Nav Haq), throughout 2011 2010 YoHa/Harwood, Wright & Yokokoji: Coal Fired Computers/Tantalum Memorial, 25 September–21 November 2010, Arnolfini Caroline Bergvall & Ciaran Maher: Say Parsley, 8 May–4 July 2010, Arnolfini Louise Bourgeois & Otto Zitko: Me, Myself and I, 24 April–4 July 2010, Arnolfini 2009 Ocean Earth: Situation Room, 21 November 2009 – 17 January 2010, Arnolfini. Artists: Peter Fend, Catherine Griffiths, Kevin Gannon, Heidi Mardon, Eve Vaterlaus Barbara Steveni: Beyond the Acid-Free, Artist Placement Group Revisited, 21 November 2009 – 17 January 2010, Arnolfini Ursula Biemann: Black Sea Files, 12 September – 8 November 2009, Arnolfini, in collaboration with Bldmuseet, Umea, Sweden Suzanne Lacy: University of Local Knowledge, September 2009 on-going, a collaboration between Arnolfini, Knowle West Media Centre and residents of Knowle West, Bristol Angus Fairhurst, 31 January – 29 March 2009, Arnolfini, then touring to Waddesdon Manor, M - Museum Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), Westfalischer Kunstverein / Landesmuseum (Munster, Germany) 2008 Supertoys: on toys, play and affective machines (co-curated with Geoff Cox), 22 November 2008 – 18 January 2009, Arnolfini. Artists: Chris Cunningham, Dunne & Raby, Natalie Jeremijenko, Kahve Society, Philippe Parreno, Unmask Group. Exhibition design: nOffice Far West (co-curated with Nav Haq), 28 June–31 August 2008, Arnolfini, then touring to Turner Contemporary, plus off-site project Far West Metro in Bristol Mall and at A Foundation, as part of the Liverpool Biennial. Artists: Xu Bing, David Blandy, Liu Ding, Cao Fei, Pierre Huyghe & Philippe Parreno, Unmask Group, Gunilla Klingberg, Surasi Kusolwong, Michael Lin, Yoko Ono, SOI Project, Seven Samurai, Janek Simon and Support Structure. Exhibition design: nOffice (Markus Miessen, Magnus Nielsen and Ralf Pflugfelder) 2007