Michael Ned Holte is a writer and independent curator based in Los Angeles.
He recently organized the exhibition “how we are in time and space: Nancy Buchanan, Marcia Hafif, Barbara T. Smith” at the Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, along with a parallel program of “annotations” by Neha Choksi, Gabrielle Civil, Patricia Fernández, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, Kang Seung Lee, Babsi Loisch, Matt Siegle, Jennifer West, The Feminist Center for Creative Work, and The Revolution School.
Previous curatorial projects include “Routine Pleasures” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, Los Angeles; “TL;DR” at Artspace NZ, Auckland; and “Made in L.A. 2014” (with Connie Butler) at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, all with accompanying publications. He has also organized solo exhibitions by Candice Lin and Aram Saroyan.
His critical essays have appeared in periodicals such as Afterall, Artforum, Art Journal, East of Borneo, Frieze, Poetry, and X-TRA; he has written monographic essays on artists including Charles Gaines, Richard Hawkins, Alice Könitz, Shio Kusaka, Roy McMakin, Steve Roden, Clarissa Tossin, and Shirley Tse. Bog Time, a pamphlet on the tape and electronic music of Pauline Oliveros, will be published in 2023. He is a recipient of the Creative Capital Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant.
Holte is on the board of directors of the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) and the artists’ advisory board for the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICA LA). He is an occasional contributor to Occasional Radio, and a member of the Varese Group.
Holte joined the Program in Art as visiting faculty in 2009 and regular faculty in 2011. His CalArts courses have included “The Contemporary Exhibition,” “Performing Life,” “Modes and Forms of Criticism,” “Pieces,” “Routine Pleasures,” “Resistance to Work,” “Pauline Oliveros for Artists,” and “What’s Up with the L-Shape?” His areas of inquiry include the history, theory, and criticism of contemporary art; Southern California art history; exhibition making and history; microinstitutions and alternative spaces; performance; experimental music and sound.