Alexandra Cunningham Cameron

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Alexandra Cunningham Cameron is an American curator of contemporary design and the first Hintz Secretarial Scholar at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Career[edit]

Cameron is currently the curator of contemporary design and inaugural Edward and Helen Hintz Secretarial Scholar[1] at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.[2]

Upon joining the museum in 2018, she initiated the critically acclaimed first retrospective of African-American fashion designer Willi Smith,[3] edited the publication, Willi Smith: Street Couture (Rizzoli Electa, 2020)[4] and developed the Willi Smith Digital Community Archive, a prototype for crowdsourced archiving, with website developers Cargo.[5]

Cameron has curated architecture and design exhibitions at museums around the United States including Meeting the Clouds Halfway at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson,[6] Free Play at Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, and Yona Friedman: Space Chain Phantasy at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami.[7] She has also organized large-scale and public works and performances with Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Philippe Malouin, Urs Fischer, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Dozie Kanu, Thom Browne, Fernando Laposse, Harvard Graduate School of Design Asif Khan, Charlap Hyman and Herrero, levenbetts, Aranda\Lasch Snarkitecture and Jamilah Sabur. She sits on the Executive Board of the Fondation D'entreprise Martell, established to present cross-disciplinary exhibitions and host residencies for artists, designers and chefs in Cognac, France.[8]

In 2019, Cameron Co-curated with Gean Moreno the first public project of Yona Friedman in the United States. Friedman was 96 years old at the time.[9] A Hungarian-born French architect, urban planner and designer, Friedman brought attention to informal architecture and the collaboration between professional architects and communities from the 1950s until his death in 2020. Much of his work derived from his experience as a refugee.

Cameron began her career with the Design Miami fairs in 2007.[10] She stepped down as Creative Director in 2015.[10] In 2011 she initiated a series of commissions at the fair with young US-based architects including Moorhead and Moorhead, Formlessfinder, Snarkitecture, and Jonathan Muecke.

From 2016-2018, Cameron was the editor in chief of The Miami Rail, an independent arts journal and sister paper of The Brooklyn Rail that produced critical coverage of art, architecture, politics, film and literature from the perspective of Miami as an axis of the United States, Caribbean and Latin America. While editing the paper, Cameron initiated a writers residency program for women writers including Alison Gingeras, Alissa Nutting, and Emily Raboteau.[11] Cameron described the mission of the paper as critical. Criticism "is not a tool or a diversion. It is a fundamental, irreducible, absolute and essential approach to art and the world. Miami is not just a place. Miami is a crisis."[12] The issues published under Cameron expanded the focus of the magazine, hiring Patricia Engel as literary editor.

Personal life[edit]

Cameron was born on Miami Beach, Florida.[13] She has workwed in both Miami and New York. She is married to the artist Seth Cameron, a founding member of the Bruce High Quality Foundation[14] and Director of the Children's Museum of the Arts.[15] They have two sons. Cameron’s career in the design field and collection of art and design, which includes the work of emerging and established designers and artists such as Philippe Malouin, Katie Stout, Maarten Baas, Max Lamb, Betty Tompkins, Ron Gorchov, Jim Brittingham and Nicola L. has been featured in publications such as The New York Times,[16] Architectural Digests in the United States,[17] Germany and Spain.

Selected exhibitions[edit]

  • Willi Smith: Street Couture, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2020[18]
  • Yona Friedman: Space Chain Phantasy, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, 2019[19]
  • Free Play, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, 2016[20]
  • Meeting the Clouds Halfway: Terrol Dew Johnson and Aranda\Lasch, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, 2017[21]

Selected public art, architecture, design and performance commissions[edit]

  • Dozie Kanu, Support System, 2018
  • Jamilah Sabur, Actual Infirnity, 2018
  • Charlap Hyman and Herrero, White Rain, 2017
  • Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Nuage, 2018
  • Philippe Malouin, Speed of Light, 2016
  • Jonathan Muecke, Pavilion, 2014
  • Jamie Zigelbaum, Triangular Series, 2014
  • formlessfinder, TENT PILE, 2013
  • Judith Seng, Acting Things IV, 2013
  • Snarkitecture, Drift Pavilion, 2012

Publications[edit]

  • Willi Smith: Street Couture, Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, ed., Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Rizzoli Electa, 2020.
  • Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, An Ode to One of Streetwear’s Forgotten Founders, The Financial Times, March 6, 2020[22]
  • The Miami Rail, “Issue 23,” Ed. Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, Spring 2018 [23] 
  • The Miami Rail, “Issue 22,” Ed. Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, Winter 2017  
  • The Miami Rail, “Issue 21,” Ed. Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, Summer 2017  
  • The Miami Rail, “Issue 20,” Ed. Cunningham Cameron, Alexandra, Spring 2017

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Alexandra Cunningham Cameron Wants Us to See the Design in the Details". Cultured Magazine. 2019-01-27. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  2. ^ "Alexandra Cunningham Cameron and Yao-Fen You Join Cooper Hewitt Curatorial Staff". Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  3. ^ "The Great Disruptors: two museum shows look back at 1970s New York". www.theartnewspaper.com. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  4. ^ Alexandra Cunningham Cameron. "Willi Smith: Street Couture". Rizzoli New York. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  5. ^ Borrelli-Persson, Laird (2020-03-16). "Willi Smith Brought Fashion to the Streets—Now the Cooper Hewitt Is Bringing the American Sportswear Pioneer Home to You". Vogue. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  6. ^ "Meeting the Clouds Halfway". www.domusweb.it. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  7. ^ "Yona Friedman's First U.S. Public Project Comes to Miami". ArchDaily. 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  8. ^ "Team – Fondation Entreprise Martell". Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  9. ^ "Yona Friedman's First U.S. Public Project Comes to Miami". ArchDaily. 2019-03-07. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  10. ^ a b Entertainment, The only biannual Magazine for Architectural. "Every Object Tells A Story: Interview with Curator Alexandra Cunningham Cameron". pinupmagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  11. ^ "Miami Beach: New 5-day Writer's Retreat at The Standard Spa, includes airfare + meals". 2017-03-21. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  12. ^ "About". The Miami Rail. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  13. ^ Louie, Elaine (2012-12-19). "Once More, With Felines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  14. ^ Hruska, Jordan. "Step Inside This Charming Brooklyn Brownstone". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  15. ^ Pogrebin, Robin (2020-01-28). "Arts Collective Founder to Lead a Children's Museum". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-30.
  16. ^ Louie, Elaine (2012-12-19). "Once More, With Felines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  17. ^ Hruska, Jordan. "Step Inside This Charming Brooklyn Brownstone". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  18. ^ "Willi Smith: Street Couture". Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. 2019-10-30. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  19. ^ "Yona Friedman: Space-Chain Phantasy-Miami 2019". Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  20. ^ "Free Play – Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara". Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  21. ^ "Aranda Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson | Meeting the Clouds Halfway". MOCA. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  22. ^ "An Ode to One of Streetwear's Forgotten Founders". Financial Times. 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
  23. ^ "Home". The Miami Rail. Retrieved 2020-05-19.
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