Mona Casey
Mona Casey is Senior Lecturer in BA and MA Fine Art, and coordinator of third year Fine Art as well as module leader for the MA programme Models and Methods of Curatorial Practice.
She was born in Ireland and currently lives in the UK, where she works as curator, artist and researcher. She directs and has initiated a range of projects including; ARTICLE, which collaborates with curators to explore artist-led curatorial models in exhibition making, co-developed ‘The Museum of [ ] Objects’ an alternative, temporal model for a Museum collection, which arose out of a framework, developed at mac Birmingham, and was co-founder and curator of COLONY an artist-led exhibition space based in Birmingham, which operated for a four-year period and represented artists at ZOO Art Fair at the Royal Academy. Between 2006 – 2011 she was co-director/ steering group member of The Event, a bi-annual presentation of artist-led galleries and projects. She also collaborated as artist duo, Casey & McAree, who were represented by The Agency Gallery in London. Currently she is collaborating on a project titled – Silent Stage, based in Lithuania which investigates the site of the exhibition as a staged environment.
Current Activity
Mona Casey’s research activity, manifests in the generation of conceptual frameworks, into which other producers are curated, commissioned and collaborated with. Her current projects are Staging the Artwork, which includes a series of exhibitions and writings, investigating the use of staging and scenographic tactics in the development of curatorial approaches to exhibition making and Silent Stage, a collaborative research project based in Lithuania, which investigates the site of the exhibition as an inter-disciplinary and staged environment.Her work also explores ‘curatorial-gesture’ in the making of ‘exhibition – events’. This has led to a preoccupation with exploring curatorial structures, both conceptual and physical, which question the theatrical event of the ‘exhibition’ and its potential as a scenario-set into which selected artists are shown. Her interest is in the blurred boundaries of ‘artwork’ and ‘curation’ and in so doing question ideas of ‘authorship’, ‘narrative’ and the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ of the exhibition form.
Areas of Expertise
- Fine Art - Practice and Theory
- Curatorial Practice
Qualifications
- 2000 - 2002 University of Wolverhampton – P.G.C.E. in Further and Higher Education
- 1996 - 1997 MA Fine Art, B.I.A.D., University of Central England, Birmingham UK.
- 1987 - 1991 BA in Fine Art, Crawford School of Art & Design, Cork, Ireland
Teaching
- BA Fine Art
- MA Fine Art
- Arts Based Masters Programme – Curatorial Practice
Research
Curating Exhibitions – Outputs
2018 – Silent Stage, Yaga Festival, Lithuania, in collaboration with Tadas Stalyga.
2015 - SALON, The Waterhall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Co-curated Rachel Bradley & Mona Casey. 80 Artists including: Gillian Wearing, Victor Burgin, Hurvin Anderson, Doyle & Mallinson, Hamish Fulton, Juneau Projects, George Shaw, etc.
2015 – Annuale 2015, ARTICLE, Co-curated Rachel Bradley & Mona Casey. Artists include Vanley Burke, Graham Chorlton, Chris Clinton, Corey Hayman, Yvonne Hindle, Lucy Hutchinson, Barbara Walker, Matt Westbrook, etc.
2012 – The Museum of [ ] Objects, The Allotment Project, mac Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Curated by Mona Casey & Sonya Russell-Saunders. 22 solo shows over 22 weeks, artists include Mel Brimfield, Martin Bardell, Matt Smith, The Jackson Twins, David Cheeseman, Rosemary Terry, etc.
2012 – This is the Point, Curated film, Flatpack Festival 6
2011 – B42 - SLICE Distribution Center, The Event, Birmingham. New commissions from artists, Ross Sinclair, Jeffrey Charles/ Henry Peacock, Heike Heilig, Niall Singh, Paul McAree, Ryan McClelland
2009 – The Space Between, Surrounds our Desire II – The Event Festival, Birmingham. Artists include Adam Burton, Ryan McClelland, Tim Maslen and Jennifer Mehru, James Lander, Marina de Stacpoole, Florin Ungureanu, Stephen Felmingham, and Michael Cousin
2009 – The Space between, Surrounds our Desire – Online digital exhibition, commissioned by Axis online (www.axisweb.org/atselection.aspx?AID=2359).
2008 - Merging Territories, The Que Club, Corporation Street, Birmingham (Commissioned as part of New Generation Arts Festival)
2006 - Inside/ Outside, Bantock House, Impact Women’s Group and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
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Curated: As ARTICLE gallery, Birmingham School of Art, BCU
2016 – This Frontier so Familiar so Strange, ARTICLE. Artists include Oscar Cass-Darweish, Bruno Grilo, James Irwin, Christopher Liam Oakes, Jack Marder, Laura O’Connor and Jennifer Wright
2016 – Obscene and Pornographic Art, ARTICLE. Two person show Matthew Stradling and Sadie Lee
2015 – 7 Disorderly Dramas, ARTICLE off-site, Live & Loud 2015, Selfridges, Birmingham. 7 acts designed and curated by Mona Casey in collaboration with Sonya Russell-Saunders. Artists include, Tadas Stalyga & Matt Springer with Andy Ingamelis, Robert Foster, David Poole, Paul Newman and David Miller, Dan Auluk and Frederick Hubble
2015 - Staging the Artwork II, ARTICLE. Curation & Props Mona Casey. Artists include Tereza Buskova, Abi Hubbard, Ryan McClelland and Lisa Selby. Commissioned Performance/ Play – If You Haven’t Been Announced, Don’t Come In - Written and Directed by Amelia Beavis-Harrison
2015 – Staging the Artwork I, ARTICLE. Curation & Props Mona Casey. Artists include Megan Broadmeadow, Mona Casey, Ole Hagen, Pamela Howard, Ryan McClelland, Stuart Robinson and Thomas Vassaux
2014 – Diamond Armour, ARTICLE. Structure Mona Casey. Artists include Ben Cove, Dermot Punnet, John Timberlake, Paul Newman, Yvonne Hindle, Geoff Diego Litherland and Jayne Anita Smith
2012 – And Miles to go before I sleep, ARTICLE gallery, School of Art, Birmingham. Print display designed by Mona Casey, Artists Adam Smythe, Trevor Pitt, Nikki Pugh etc.
2012 – Prologue – Each to their Own, Film Bug, Flatpack Festival 2012,
2012 – NOTICE, ARTICLE gallery, School of Art, Birmingham. Open submission, various artists.
2011 – We’ve been Re-distributed - Ryan Hughes, solo show, ARTICLE gallery, School of Art, Birmingham
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Curated: As COLONY projects, Birmingham, United Kingdom
2007 - Last of the Urgents, Colony, Birmingham. Nikolas Arvanitis, Simon Bedwell, GL Brierley, Ryan McClelland, Jo Mitchell. Text commission by Mark Hutchinson
2007 - ZOO Art Fair, The Royal Academy, London. Represented artists include Nikolas Arvanitis, Terry Atkinson, Jonathan Baldock, Anne Mare Barry, Mona Casey, Amanda Coogan, Christian Sullivan Neil Zakiewicz, etc.
2007 - Drunken Boat, Colony, Birmingham. Artists include Casey & McAree, Susan Finlay, Nevan Lehart, Mark Pearson etc.
2007 - Frou Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires, Colony, Birmingham. Artists include Jonathan Baldock, Emma Barrow, Greg Cox, John Timberlake etc.
2007 - Flavia Muller Medeiros, solo show, Colony, Birmingham
2007 - Black Light (The Event Festival), with Gordon Dalton, Alex Pearl, Michelle Deignan and HK119
2006 - Legacies of Dissolution, Colony, Birmingham. Curatorial structure by Casey & McAree with artists Terry Atkinson, Eric Bainbridge, Miles Thurlow etc.
2006 - The Birmingham School of Business School, (New Generation Arts Festival), Island House, Birmingham
2006 - Black Implication Flooding, Colony, Birmingham. 20 video artists including Knut Åsdam, Amanda Coogan, Seamus Harahan, John Wood & Paul Harrison, Alexander Vaindorf etc.
2005 - All at once together at the same time, Colony, Birmingham. 101 national and international artists, with new commissions by Simon & Tom Bloor and Peter Lloyd-Lewis.
2004 - The End is the beginning is the end, Colony, Birmingham
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Exhibitions: Solo and collaborative
2015 - SALON, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
2015 - Staging the Artwork I, ARTICLE
2011 - Performance - Clementine Deliss’ for Symposion, The Event 2011
2008 - Heavier than a coffin on your shoulder, Solo Exhibition, The Agency, London, (Casey & McAree)
2006 - Deep in the Woods, Tulca (within and without), Solo Exhibition, Galway, Ireland, (Casey & McAree)
2006 - Misdemeanours and Regurgitations Solo exhibition, Colony, Birmingham
2005 - Wolf Eyes, Periscope, Birmingham UK. (Casey & McAree)
2004 - Internal Centre of imaginary Resistance, Independant space, Birmingham
Postgraduate Supervision
MA
Publications
Published Writings
2015 - Seeing and Believing - Introductory Essay, New Art Annuale 2015 Magazine
2015 - Paul Newman - Stage, Catalogue monograph on the work of Paul Newman, mac Birmingham, distributed by Cornerhouse Publications, Manchester. ISBN 9781907796180
2014 - I curate, you curate, we all curate (a nod to Alex Farquharson), What does it mean to curate, mac Birmingham.
2011 - Mona Casey interviews Elizabeth Rowe, Turning Point West Midlands
2009 - Mona Casey interviews Tatham & O’Sullivan, Map Magazine, Autumn 2009
2007 - ‘As if something once mentioned now plain to see’, Editor, Colony publication. With texts by Terry Atkinson, Art & Language, Mark Hutchinson, Vincent Honore, Paul O Neill, Sally O’ Reilly, Amanda Beech, David Burrows etc.
ISBN-10: 0955741106
2007 - ‘Taking the matter into common hands, Contemporary Art and Collaborative Practice’, Black Dog publishing, Review by Mona Casey in [an] magazine
2006 - ‘The 18th Storey’, Haddon Tower, Birmingham, Review by Mona Casey [an] magazine
2005 - ‘The Best Years of our Lives’, Midwest, Birmingham, Review by Mona Casey [an] magazine
2005 - ‘The Nature of Things’, The Waterhall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UCE/ BM&AG
2005 - ‘Space’, The Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, Review by Mona Casey [an] magazine