ICI Awards Emerging Curators

Jay Sanders and Nav Haq are the recipients of this year's Independent Vision Curatorial Award from Independent Curators International, New York. The biannual award for early or midcareer curators comes with a $4,000 stipend to be put toward a new project.

The winners were selected by Hans Ulrich Obrist, co-director of Serpentine Gallery, London, from a field of 16 candidates who were nominated by 15 international curators.

A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Antwerp since April of this year, Haq previously worked at Arnolfini, a contemporary art nonprofit in Bristol (2007-12), and Gasworks, a contemporary art nonprofit in London (2004-07). Haq also helped develop a series of books with artists Rosalind Nashashibi and Olivia Plender as a guest editor at Book Works, London, and curated the inaugural MARKER section at the Art Dubai art fair in 2011, working with experimental art organizations from across Asia and the Middle East on special projects.

Sanders, a performance art specialist recently hired as a full-time curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, co-curated that institution's 2012 biennial with Elizabeth Sussman. In 2011, Sanders organized New York's Numina Lente, a three-evening music and performance festival. Previously, he was a director at Greene Naftali gallery, also in New York (2005–10).

In a press release, Obrist praised both winners, saying, "Each curator is establishing a unique voice, developing their practice by initiating projects independently, as well as having worked in a diverse range of institutions. Nav Haq frequently takes us into the polyphony of art centers, creating shows and projects that broaden the scope of our thinking. Jay Sanders stays close to artists, gaining a strong understanding of an artist's body of work-both emerging and overlooked-so that ultimately audiences can know an artist deeper."

ICI established the Independent Vision award in 2010. Doryun Chong of the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y., was the inaugural winner.