The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston announces the impending departure of Cynthia Woods Mitchell Associate Curator Tyler Blackwell, who will leave the Blaffer in July 2022 to begin a new position as Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. The Blaffer also announces a national search for a new curator, set to commence this summer.

“We are sad to see Tyler go, but we will remain grateful for all the brightness and dynamism he brought to the Blaffer over his four years with the organization,” said Jane Dale Owen Director and Chief Curator Steven Matijcio. “Tyler’s exhibitions were ambitious and daring, his writing and research well-considered, and he has the unique ability to win friends and supporters across Houston and the country,” he continues. Blackwell will remain involved in the near-term exhibitions he had planned for the Blaffer, including Hugh Hayden and Maria A. Guzmán Capron this summer, Monira Al Qadiri in the Fall, and Leslie Martinez and Jacolby Satterwhite in January 2023.

Since his arrival at the Blaffer Art Museum in 2018, Blackwell has worked in close collaboration with Matijcio to rethink and expand the institution’s diverse and multidisciplinary program of artist-centric exhibitions, publications, public programs, and community engagement. For the museum, he has organized or co-organized solo exhibitions with a range of emerging and established international artists, including many artists’ first museum presentations in the United States. These include major exhibitions of Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Rodney McMillian, and Rebecca Morris, as well as focused shows of Jagdeep Raina, Jacqueline Nova, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, and Yoshua Okón. In 2021, Blackwell co-curated the acclaimed group exhibition Carriers: The Body as a Site of Danger and Desire, which featured the work of fifteen Houston-area artists addressing issues of identity, community health, and social inequality. He also organized the Houston presentation of the 2019 traveling survey exhibition of the work of Paul Mpagi Sepuya.

In August 2022, Blackwell will begin his position as Curator of Contemporary Art at the Speed Art Museum. The Speed, in Louisville, Kentucky, is an independent, encyclopedic museum, and the oldest and largest art museum in the state. The Speed serves as a cultural hub where people can connect with each other and the work of artists from across the world in new and unexpected ways. Established in 1927 by philanthropist Hattie Bishop Speed, the Museum has undergone several renovations and expansions, now occupying over 200,000 square feet on the University of Louisville’s campus.

Search for New Curator

Beginning in June 2022, the Blaffer Art Museum will conduct a national search for a new Assistant Curator. The position will work collaboratively with the museum's director and staff to organize and support exhibitions, public programs, and education efforts. The position listing will be posted on the museum and university's Opportunities websites in the coming weeks.