In a surprising turn of event, San Francisco art space 500 Capp Street has laid off their head curator named Bob Linder. This art space is known to be the former home of conceptual artist David Ireland. This art space was also believed to be the sire of exhibitions from David Ireland and other artists till 2009.
But since his death in that year, 500 Capp Street has laid off people in an effort for change of direction. The art space says that the lay off was an effort “to re-balance 500 Capp Street future exhibitions and public programs with an enhanced education program that will offer aspiring students, young artist [sic], and art historians enhanced opportunities to learn more about curatorial and artist practice.”
Now, the ousting of Linder has not had a great impact on some of the artists in 500 Capp Street. One of the New York-based painter named Matt Connors has already cancelled his upcoming show. This also leads us to the question of future events at the art space.
After a board morning, Linder was let go from the role of lead curator at the Art Space. However, Linder declined to comment as he has signed a confidentiality agreement. Since Connors announced that the exhibition was cancelled, he was contacted to continue by 500 Capp Street. However, Linder told ARTnews that “Artists always have this problem where there are administrative people who are so far out of touch from actual artists, I just can’t imagine that someone would think I would continue to do the show.”
This statement from Connors shows that he was unaware about the whole situation regarding Linder and that he was surprised by the decision. Also, Jock Reynolds who is a board chair at 500 Capp Street contacted Matt Connors to continue his exhibition but he declined to do so.
