Bill Arning Biography

Prior to his nine-year tenure at MIT Arning worked as a freelance writer and independent curator. He was the director and chief curator of White Columns Alternative Art Space in New York from 1985-1996.
Arning said his initial strategy at CAMH will be to explore “its niche within the larger art ecology of Houston” much as he did in the Boston area when joined MIT in 2000.
“Boston is not unlike Houston in terms of the amount of contemporary-art institutions and what they do within the city” he said adding that after examining “how the needs of an art fancier or art fan were being met … we did the job that was not getting done.”
Within a few years of his arrival Boston Magazine had dubbed Arning a “cowboy curator of cutting-edge contemporary art” who “surfaces at experimental happenings and rock shows bridging the gap between the buttoned-up museum men and the sneaker-shod independents.”
Edgy List exhibits included Sensorium a two-part show co-curated by Arning which highlighted art that crosses sensory boundaries. One piece by Berlin-based Norwegian artist Sissel Tolaas featured gallery walls coated with synthetic replications of sweat from 15 men’s armpits. Startled visitors often found themselves wondering if they’d forgotten to use deodorant Arning told the Kansas City Star in 2006.

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