Stuart Comer is The Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media and Performance at The Museum of Modern Art. He oversees the collection and diverse program of exhibitions, events, and acquisitions for the Department of Media and Performance. He also leads The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Studio, the Museum’s new space dedicated to performance, music, sound, spoken word, and expanded approaches to the moving image.
Since his appointment in 2013, in addition to helping reconceive the Museum’s collection galleries, Mr. Comer’s projects at MoMA have included member: Pope.L, 1978-2001 (2019), Haegue Yang: Handles (2019), Tania Bruguera: Untitled (Havana, 2000) (2018), Inbox: Steve McQueen (2017), Inbox: Charles Atlas (2017), Alexandra Bachzetsis’s Massacre: Variations on a Theme (2017), Mark Leckey: Containers and Their Drivers (at MoMA PS1, 2016), BRUCE CONNER: IT’S ALL TRUE (2016), Tony Oursler: Imponderable (2016), Bouchra Khalili: The Mapping Journey Project (2016), Transmissions: Art in Eastern Europe and Latin America, 1960–1980 (2015), Juliana Huxtable: There Are Certain Facts that Cannot Be Disputed (2015), Cut to Swipe (2014), and Simone Forti and Charlemagne Palestine: illlummminnnatttionnnsssss!!!!!!! (2014). He is currently organizing Adam Pendleton: Who Is Queen? a major commission for the Marron Atrium opening in September 2021, and he is co-curating the forthcoming exhibition, Signals: The Politics of Video.
Mr. Comer was co-curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2014 Biennial, and from 2004-2013 served as the first Curator of Film at Tate Modern, London, where he oversaw film and video work for the Tate Collection and Displays and co-curated the opening program of the Tanks at Tate Modern. Mr. Comer has recently presented talks with artists including Rosa Barba, Dara Birnbaum, Tania Bruguera, Ian Cheng, Luke Fowler, Isaac Julien, Naeem Mohaiemen, Pope.L, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hito Steyerl, and Christopher Williams, among others. He has contributed to numerous periodicals, including Artforum, Frieze, Afterall, Mousse, Parkett, and Art Review. He is editor of Film and Video Art (2009) and has contributed texts to publications on such artists as Tom Burr, Andrea Fraser, David Lamelas, Sharon Lockhart, Mark Morrisroe, Lucy Raven, and Gillian Wearing.
Mr. Comer received a BA (1990) in art history from Carleton College in Minnesota and attended the Curating Contemporary Art MA at the Royal College of Art, London (2002).