On the occasion of the exhibition Barbara T. Smith: Proof at ICA LA, join us for a special lecture by Catherine Taft, Deputy Director at Curator at LAXART. The lecture explores how Barbara T. Smith’s performances and visual artworks are tied to themes of ecofeminism: the idea that environmental and gender exploitation are systemically linked under patriarchy and capitalism. Taft is currently working on a major exhibition of ecofeminist art, for which she received a research fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; in addition, she contributed an essay to the Barbara T. Smith: Proof exhibition catalog, also about Smith and ecofeminism.

Catherine Taft is deputy director and curator at LAXART. Previously, she was assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she co-organized the inaugural show of its new building, “America is Hard to See” (2015) and curatorial associate in the department of architecture and contemporary art at the Getty Research Institute where she helped produce the exhibitions “Pacific Standard Time: Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950–1970” (2011) and “California Video” (2008). Her writing appears in Artforum, Mousse, and Cura among other publications, and she has contributed to monographs on artists including Amanda Ross-Ho (forthcoming), Matthew Barney, Carroll Dunham, Elliot Hundley, Yayoi Kusama, and Sterling Ruby. Taft is currently working on a survey of ecofeminist art (Fall 2024) for which she was awarded an Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Research Fellowship. She is a 2021 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow and serves as visiting faculty in the Graduate Art department at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.