About

Aubree Penney (b. 1990, US) is a fat, disabled Memphis-raised, Dallas-based curator, artist, writer, and project manager. Her work addresses power dynamics in art display, confronting the impossibility of neutrality or equity in institutional structures.

Her curatorial practice is grounded in the disruption of museums’ prioritization of well and able bodies through both architectural and digital structure and installation strategy. Her ongoing research focuses on language translation and standardization policies in museum database structure and wall labels. She is interested in the ties between colonial tendencies and mimetic expectations in form and content relationships, prioritizing the impact on Black American and African contemporary artists. She advocates for artists’ leadership in the determination of tombstone label contents and production of accessibility materials for their own works.

Her favorite curatorial projects to date are a speech showed the chair in the middle, a London workshop and exhibition grounded in recorded image descriptions as a means of art production, and Let Us Love You as You Are, an online art event designed to honor people’s struggles and fears and to celebrate a moment of community in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Her art practice confronts collective knowledge production’s ability to normalize the horrors of history through standardized visual formats while simultaneously elevating the obscure.

She holds an MFA with a distinction in Curating from Goldsmiths College, University of London and a BA from Haverford College in English and Religion.

Aubree currently serves as Senior Project Manager and Curatorial Associate for public art and history studio Monument Lab.

She collaborates with Belgium-born, London-based curator Riet Timmerman as the duo Call You in the Morning.

Pronouns: she/her

CV

Education

MFA with a distinction in Curating
Goldsmiths College, University of London | 2018

BA in English and Religion | Phi Beta Kappa, High Honors in Religion, Honors in English
Haverford College | 2013

Institutional Work

Monument Lab
Assistant to the Director and Curatorail Associate 2022-present | Temp. Administrative Assistant March-May 2022
Philadelphia, PA

Shonibare Studios
Independent Contractor for Libraries 2021-present
London

Tate Modern
Independent Contractor 2019-2021 | Curating Intern, African Art 2017
London

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Museum Studies Internship Program 2013
Philadelphia, PA

Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery
Co-Manager 2011-13 | Gallery Assistant 2010-2011
Haverford, PA

Curatorial Projects

Untitled project on audio description as visual arts practice  
Dimensions Art Center | Chongqing | Postponed

Let Us Love You as You Are (virtual exhibition event)
Online with the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery | 2020

An Alarming Specificity (exhibition)
Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery | Haverford, PA | 2020

Negative Space (exhibition)
Crosstown Arts | Memphis, TN | 2020

ReFORMed (workshop and exhibition)
EnclaveLab | London | 2018

The Long Ongoing Moment (publication)
Online and at Crossbones Garden | London | 2018

Outside (exhibition)
Crossbones Garden | London | 2018

a speech showed the chair in the middle (workshop and exhibition)
EnclaveLab | London | 2018

Labelled (exhibition)
EnclaveLab | London | 2017

[Un]titled (workshop)
Chisenhale Studios | London | 2017

Group Shows as Artist

Flow Space
Online | 2020

Residencies and Awards

Flow Space
Online | 2020

Dimensions Art Center
Chongqing | Postponed due to COVID-19

Crosstown Arts Residency
Memphis, TN | 2019

Lewisham Borough of Culture Bid Inclusion
London | 2017

Publications

“Waiting for Water” in Flow Tales, edited by Ebru Bingöl, Vincenzo Meoli, and Erinc Ulusoy
E-book | 2021

“Planets should never zoom towards you” in After Decameron, edited by Riet Timmerman
Open Space | 2021

Presentations and Webinars

“We Want a Sick Museum” as part of Call You in the Morning with Riet Timmerman
Annual Conference of the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries | Online | 2021

“How to Write an Abstract When Your Hands are on Fire”
Annual Conference of the College Art Association | Online | February 2021