Evolving Curation: Curator and Dealer Lolita Cros on Adapting her Career and Democratizing Art
Portrait by Zak Kitnick
Born in Paris, Lolita Cros is an independent curator, advisor and dealer living and working in New York City. She develops emerging talents and pioneers established artists by creating dialogues between the two through conversations and exhibitions. With each project she proposes an alternative venue that asks the viewer to revisit their expectations and look at the work through a new and unique lens.
Cros has exhibited works in various spaces such as a Chinese restaurant, a rooftop, a 26' truck and other venues in NY, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Paris and London to name a few.
In 2016, Cros launched the Salon Series, a series of artist talks she moderated with important figures of the contemporary art world like Duane Michals, Peter Saul, Tina Barney, and Tschabalala Self to name a few.
Between 2017 and 2020, she founded and ran The Salon at The Wing, a permanent exhibition and gallery space within all nine locations of women's club The Wing. Over 180 artists were featured in The Salon including Marilyn Minter, Jenny Holzer and Senga Nengudi among many others. Cros has curated shows for Sotheby's, Brookfield, Paddle8, the New York Academy of Art among others and developed the collection of multiple private and public collections including Chanel, Brookfield, The Wing and more recently the California African American Museum. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Lolita talks about making art accessible and the intentionality behind curation, advising those just starting their careers to ride out both the highs and lows.
JG: Where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid? What were those foundational years like?
LS: I grew up mostly in Paris. I was in Casablanca, Morocco as well when I was a kid, but Paris definitely had the biggest influence on me as I spent most of my life there, and where I had access to museums.
One of the first experiences I remember is going to the Bastille Opera. In one of the lobbies there was a public sculpture by Niki de Saint Phalle. Her sculptures are generally quite big and full of color, and I vividly remember being mesmerized by it. My mom also remembers another installation by Niki de Saint Phalle where the sculpture was just this giant pair of open legs, and one enters through the vagina. My mom remembers me walking in there as a toddler, sitting down in the middle of this vagina, and peeing, which was probably the most Freudian thing that could happen [laughs]. Then Morocco probably brought me to an openness about life, and probably why I was eventually open to living in New York.
Installation image of Chase Hall first painting show "You Can Lead a Horse to Water" curated by Lolita Cros, 2018.
How did you then come to the world of curation?
I was studying art history at Bard College, which I always knew that I was going to study. I was learning about all of these amazing artists and movements, and thinking how fun it would be to move to New York. I realized that every decade has its own movement and its own roster of artists, and that the artists I was discovering in real time while I was in school could also be part of a movement someday. I started scheduling studio visits when I was a freshman, just to see what these artists were doing, and then Barbara Ess, a professor at Bard, offered me to come and be a critic for her sophomore and junior students. This experience was really fun, but also helped me develop a critical eye and a vocabulary for how to speak to and about artists.
I started curating when I was in college. I had my first show during my sophomore year, and during my junior or senior year, I decided to do a show in New York City because that’s where I wanted to be when I graduated. Then I kept doing it, and things took off from there.
Walk me through how your career in curation has evolved.
The first project I did in New York was a fundraiser that I put on after Hurricane Sandy, supporting artists that were affected. I reached out to all these different artists, some that were up-and-coming painters that I had seen at Bard and really loved, and it was a really exciting time to work with those people and showcase them together with bigger artists like Dustin Yellin, who had just started Pioneer Works and was blowing up. Other artists were Jemima Kirk who was trying things out while she was on this big show on HBO, and Rachel Rossin who wasn’t that well known and who now has a solo show at the Whitney Museum. I just kept doing that – in lofts, on rooftops, at hotels, in trucks [laughs].
Then in 2015, I curated a show with an artist out of his gallery in Paris, and then we marketed it in New York, and I got experience selling pieces. It sold really well, and I decided that I can make a living out of this. This was my first time making real money, and I realized I could quit my day job and be an independent dealer and curator.
“I have this big dream that people will one day interact with art in the same way that they interact with films, with sports...I want to democratize the understanding that art comes out of context, history, and a lot of intention.”
What was your day job?
I was working at an art gallery. I started as a receptionist and ended up opening their media department. It was great, I just always knew it wasn’t for me to work for someone else, and I kept curating on the side and spending a lot of time doing that – in the evenings, on the weekends, doing studio visits on Sundays, and it was a lot.
In 2016 I opened my own company and kept putting on shows with artists while also working with the Wing, a coworking space, to curate pieces by female artists for their spaces.
Now I know you’re working with developers in this way as well, curating art for the public spaces in new developments. Tell me about this.
When I started curating for the Wing, the project got me really excited about art as a public experience, and putting art in spaces with a lot of viewers. I don’t think art should be gate-kept behind a paywall; I think it should be accessible. That being said, museums are completely necessary, and they can’t all be free, but there can tend to be this elite system behind galleries. So, what I wanted to do, by curating shows in all of these random places, is to make the art accessible to many people.
My work with new developments was an easy evolution after the Wing, in keeping that mindset of exposing people to art. Developers put up many buildings where the residents develop a personal relationship with what’s on the walls; kids will grow up and remember, twenty-years later, what they grew up with. With that, I wanted to have an intentional approach to the art that I was putting into these spaces. When companies like Brookfield Properties started reaching out to me, because they had worked with interior designers who knew me for example, I really wanted them to understand that I wasn’t just going to put stuff on their walls; I was going to curate for them, and select pieces that had meaning and intention behind it.
My approach to it is the same as for any institutional show; I think about the space, the neighborhood, the design, and how all of this affects the selection. In some ways, a lot of buildings have the same elements repeated through them – you can expect a building to have an elevator, and a certain type of stair, and things like this, and I wanted the art to be a very unique element to the building and the location. For the Brookfield Properties project in the Bronx, I wanted the art to reflect the demographic, so I was looking at artists that were a part of the fellowship of the Bronx Museum, or that were part of local residency programs, or were native to the neighborhood. This made for an incredible selection of art, and I’m really proud of the curation for it. One of the pieces is actually on loan to three different museums in America now. That’s practically unheard of for a piece that is meant to be in an elevator lobby.
Eva Robarts paintings hanging in the Pendry Manhattan West Hotel. Photography by Melanie Landsman.
Jerónimo Rüedi paintings and Letha Wilson photograph hanging in the lobby of Brookfield's Eagle + West building, Brooklyn. Photography by Melanie Landsman.
Installation image of Tania Kovats's work in a Brooklyn Brookfield residential building. Photography by John Cole.
Rendering featuring a Lucien Smith's painting at Brookfield's upcoming residential building in the Bronx.
That’s incredible. What are you focused on these days and what are you most excited for right now?
I want to continue doing this work; my goal would be to do this for even more public spaces, so that not only residents can see the art, but also the passersby of office buildings, things like this. There was that Richard Serra piece that was put in Midtown in front of a bank, that was very controversial, which I think is amazing. I’d love to put pieces of art in parks, and other open format spaces throughout New York, and beyond.
Looking back at everything that you’ve done in your career so far, what have been the biggest challenges?
I remember when I was young, being young felt like such a challenge. I would put on a show and people would come in and ask where my boss was, things like this. I feel like I’ve had to hide a lot of things, or overcompensate by dressing up and putting on more makeup to look older. That was tough, and now, I can sometimes think that people think I’m old, or not in it, and it’s the opposite problem [laughs]!
The biggest challenge though was definitely Covid. I had a lot of projects going, a few of which went away. I remember asking myself, “Are we all living online now? Do I host art shows online? How do I keep up? Do I reinvent myself?” That’s all really tough, and that’s when I started moving into more and more of art advising and working with individual collectors who wanted to start a new collection, or revisit a collection that they had, and start selecting works in a more intentional manner or that focus on certain topics, and that was fun.
“Life isn’t linear, and your career certainly isn’t, especially if you’re building your own company or brand. You’re going to have highs, and you’re also going to have lows – and you have to remember that when you’re low, you won’t stay there, and when you’re high, you won’t stay there either.”
And that’s how we connected! What would you say you’ve learned in the last six months, especially as we’re coming out of the pandemic?
I learned not to try to match the life I used to have, before Covid, or when I was in my twenties. It’s been a transitional phase for everyone, but finding new projects that I haven’t thought of before and that are something I never thought I would do, were ultimately very welcome opportunities because I learned so much. It’s good to learnand learn new things that you otherwise wouldn’t have – it’s exciting. I learned not to compare my life to what it was, as everyone grows up and that’s actually exciting.
I completely relate. You’ve mentioned a lot of amazing people, but who are you admiring right now?
I admire people who are able to mute the noise, and just do their thing. I always admire great art dealers – Paula Cooper is incredible, Marian Goodman – I’m choosing women because I do think often times, the art world is a man’s world. It also takes a lot to accept that certain artists move on from your roster and go with someone else, and not to take that personally and keep bringing in artists. I have a lot of respect for people that keep going. I think it’s important to keep moving.
Still photo of 2nd episode of Lolita’s Youtube series "Eye To Eye" with Tina Barney & Roe Ethridge.
If you had to summarize your mission, and what you want to do for the world, what would that be?
I don’t think my mission has changed since college, to bring good art – art that is interesting, that matters, that is deep – to the masses. I have this big dream that people will one day interact with art in the same way that they interact with films, with sports, anything that requires a little bit of knowledge and some understanding but at the end of the day, it’s as important and can move you just as much as a play or dance performance or musical. I want to democratize the understanding that art comes out of context, history, and a lot of intention. That’s what I try to do with my curation, and with the videos I developed after Covid, which are interviews on YouTube with two artists about their art and their inspiration for it.
What advice do you have for those just starting their careers? Do you have any additional advice for women?
I think that in general, nothing is linear. Life isn’t linear, and your career certainly isn’t, especially if you’re building your own company or brand. You’re going to have highs, and you’re also going to have lows – and you have to remember that when you’re low, you won’t stay there, and when you’re high, you won’t stay there either. Take everything one day at a time, one month at a time, or one year at a time, but don’t beat yourself up too much if things are taking longer. But also, don’t get ahead of yourself either [laughs]. Things happen, and that’s a part of life. I think everyone deals with it, women and men. I do notice that women apologize more than men, so as much as possible, stop apologizing. Men don’t apologize, and they live on [laughs].