Martin Clark has been named director of Norway’s Bergen Kunsthall.Currently artistic director at Tate St Ives, Cornwall, United Kingdom,Clark succeeds Solveig Øvstebø, who took over as executive director of Chicago’s Renaissance Society in June.
“I’ve been a big fan of the program that Solveig has built up in Bergen over 10 years,” Clark told A.i.A., reached by phone at Tate St Ives. “It’s a beautiful space and she’s implemented a serious and ambitious program.”
At Tate St Ives since 2007, Clark was previously exhibitions curator at Arnolfini, Bristol (2004-07) and curator at the Kent Institute of Art and Design (2001-04). He has curated exhibitions including solo shows of Simon Starling, Lily van der Stokker, Dexter Dalwood, Carol Bove and many others, as well as group shows such as “The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art,” at Tate St Ives (2009).
Clark told A.i.A. that there’s an advantage to working at institutions away from the centers of art-world activity.
“I’ve been at St Ives for six years now, operating in another peripheral location,” he said. “A certain kind of freedom comes along with that. And Bergen is a wonderful city, and the Kunsthall is a great space. Sometimes you feel like you need to re-orient an institution when you go in. I’ll be able to simply build on what they’re already doing.”
Clark takes up the reins in September.
