Ann Coxon is an internationally renowned curator, writer and researcher with a specialist interest in textile practices within modern and contemporary art. For over 20 years she was Curator of International Art at Tate Modern where she organised two collection rehangs and curated over 40 collection displays as well as a number of significant temporary exhibitions. Most notably, she co-curated the landmark exhibitions Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope, 2022; Dorothea Tanning, 2019; Anni Albers, 2018.
Ann is currently completing a PhD thesis on New Tapestry in Europe 1962-1970, funded by AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Parnership scheme with Tate and University College London, supervised by Professor Briony Fer. She has published many catalogue essays and articles as well as two books: Motherhood, Tate Publishing, 2023 and Louise Bourgeois, Tate Publishing, 2010. She has experience of teaching at BA and MA level and has presented papers at the AAH Conference, the University of Cambridge (keynote paper) and many museums and galleries internationally. She has also served as a jury member for the International Triennial of Textile, Łódź and for the ANTEPRIMA x CHAT Contemporary Textile Art Prize.
Selected Exhibitions
- Curatorial Advisor, Material Worlds, Hayward Touring Exhibition, 2024
- Magdalena Abakanowicz, Every Tangle of Thread and Rope, Tate Modern, 2022
- Dorothea Tanning, Tate Modern, London, 27 February – 9 June 2019
- Anni Albers, Kunstsammlung Nordrheim-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K20, 9 June – 9 September 2018; Tate Modern, London, 11 October 2018 – 27 January 2019
- Beyond Craft, Tate Modern, 2018
- Bruce Nauman, ARTIST ROOMS, Tate Modern, 2017-2018
- Louise Bourgeois, ARTIST ROOMS, Tate Modern, 2016-2017
- Living Cities, Tate Modern, 2016-2020
- Start Display, Tate Modern, 2016 – 2020
- Alexander Calder, Performing Sculpture, Tate Modern, 11 November 2015 – 3 April 2016.
- Louise Bourgeois: Works on Paper, Tate Modern, 2013-2014
- Saloua Raouda Choucair, Tate Modern, 16 April – 20 October 2013
- Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera, Tate Modern, 2010
- Level 2 Gallery: Michael Rakowitz, Tate Modern, 2010
- Craftivism, Arnolfini, Bristol, 11th December 2009 – 13th February 2010
- Louise Bourgeois (major retrospective exhibition), Tate Modern, 10 October 2007 – 20 January 2008; Centre Pompidou, Paris, 5 March – 2 June 2008; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, 27 June – 28 September 2008; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 26 October 2008 – 26 January, 2009; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, 28 February – 7 June, 2009.
- Kandinsky: The Path to Abstraction, Tate Modern, 22 June – 1 October 2006
- Robert Frank: Storylines, Tate Modern, 28 October 2004 – 23 January 2005
- Interweaving Cultures, Jim Thompson Thai House and Museum, Bangkok, 2005
Publications
- ‘Calder’s Postwar Equilibrium’, Alexander Calder, exhibition catalogue, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, 2024
- ‘Bois Le Duc: The Forest, The Fortress and the Nomad’s Tent’, in New Encounters with Abakanowicz Anthology (upcoming, title tbc, publisher tbc), (peer reviewed).
- ‘Sculpting Feelings: Tapta and the Textile Art of the 1970s’, Tapta, Flexible Forms, exhibition catalogue, Muzeum Susch, Switzerland, 2024
- ‘On Painting On Weaving’, Ptolemy Mann, monograph, Hurtwood Publishing, London, 2024
- ‘Woven Walls and the Texture of Time’ in Olga de Amaral, exhibition catalogue, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 2024
- ‘Wearing Their Own Selves: Anu Põder’s Sculptural Clothing’, in Cecilia Alemani, ed., Anu Põder: Space for My Body, exhibition catalogue, Muzeum Susch, Switzerland, 2023
- ‘Threads of Resilience: Build, Rebuild, Wear and Repair’, Clare Molloy, ed., Katie Schwab, Sample Book, Vleeshal and Dent-De-Leone, Netherlands, 2023
- Motherhood book (monograph), Tate Publishing, 2023.
- ‘Every Tangle of Thread and Rope’, essay in Ann Coxon and Mary Jane Jacob, eds., Magdalena Abakanowicz, exhibition catalogue, Tate Publishing, 2022
- ‘Beyond Craft: Exhibiting Textiles in the Art Museum’, Journal of Craft, Volume 15, issue 2. (peer reviewed), 2022
- ‘Weaving Modernism by K H Wells’, book review, Burlington Magazine, vol 162, no 1411, Yale University Press, 2020 (peer reviewed)
- ‘Contemporary Art/Textile Art’ in Breaching Borders, 16th International Triennial of Tapestry, exhibition catalogue, Łódź, Poland, 2019.
- ‘Two Hands, One Eye, One Needle and Many Threads’, in Madge Gill by Myrninerest, Sophie Dutton, Ed., Rough Trade Books, London, 2019
- ‘Another Dimension: Dorothea Tanning, Contemporary Practice and the Legacies of Surrealism’ in Dorothea Tanning, Alyce Mahon, Ed, exhibition catalogue, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid and Tate Modern, London, 2018.
- Anni Albers, exhibition catalogue, Ann Coxon, Briony Fer and Maria Müller-Schareck, Eds, exhibition catalogue, Tate, London, 2018
- ‘Making Something from Something: Toward a Re-definition of Women’s Textile Art’ in Entangled: Threads and Making, exhibition catalogue, Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK, 2017
- ‘Composing Motions: Staging Calder’s Performing Sculpture’ in Alexander Calder: Performing Sculpture, Achim Borchardt-Hume, Ed, exhibition catalogue, Tate, London, 2015
- ‘The Potentiality of the Thing, Saloua Raouda Choucair’s modular sculpture’, in Saloua Raouda Choucair, Jessica Morgan, Ed, exhibition catalogue, Tate, London, 2013
- Louise Bourgeois, monograph, Modern Artists series, Tate Publishing, 2010
Conference papers and presentations
- ‘The Forest, The Fortress and the Nomad’s Tent’, keynote presentation Het Noordbrabants Museum/Provinciehuis, Den Bosch, Netherlands.
- In Conversation with Glenn Adamson (recorded) for Lenore Tawney and Toshiko Takaezu: A Remarkable Friendship, Alison Jacques Gallery, 2024
- Unpacking Haegue Yang, Hayward Gallery, 2024
- Lecture, ‘Sculpting Feelings’, Tapta: Flexible Forms, online symposium, also panel discussion, Muzeum Susch, Switzerland, 2024
- Woven Textiles in the Art Museum/Gallery, Mary Farmer Study Day, Westdean College/UCA Farnham, 2024
- Museum Debate – Contested Threads: Curating Textiles, panel discussion, Courtauld Institute, London, 2024
- Panel Discussion, The Mother and the Weaver, Foundling Museum, London, 2024
- On curating Magdalena Abkanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope, Symposium paper, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway, 2023
- Symposium paper, The Forest, the Fortress and the Nomad’s Tent at New Encounters with Abakanowicz, Tate Modern, 2023
- Symposium paper, Working on the Surfaces: Albers’s Knots and Asawa’s Loops, Modern Art, Oxford, 2022
- Keynote lecture, Weaving Cultural and Personal Memory, Academic symposium, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University, 2022
- Beyond Craft: Exhibiting Textiles in the Art Museum, Association for Art History annual conference paper. 2021
- Chair, Tender Crafts Panel Discussion, Jerwood Gallery, London, 2021Curator’s Talk: Ann Coxon on Dorothea Tanning, Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, 11 March 2019
- Lecture, Department of Fine Art, University of Leeds, 2019
- Curators’ Talk, Ann Coxon and Briony Fer on Anni Albers, Starr Auditorium, Tate Modern, 17 October 2018
- ‘Monochromes of Modern Life’, Art Fund lecture, The Wallace Collection, 2016
- ‘Louise Bourgeois’s Insomnia Drawings’, Insomnia Conference, Wellcome Collection, London, 2008
