I have worked as a curator and curatorial assistant at university art museums, encyclopedic museums, contemporary art museums, and galleries, both independently and collaboratively. Below are some of those projects.

American, born Hungary: Kertész, Capa, and the Hungarian American Photographic Legacy
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia, October 4, 2024 – January 26, 2025
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary, April 5 – August 25, 2024
George Eastman Museum, International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, New York, September 26, 2025  

Curated by Alex Nyerges, the director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and Péter Baki, the director of the Museum of Hungarian Photography. Curatorial assistant at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, fall 2016, Sarah Kleinman.
Exhibition catalogue.

Reviewed in Hungary Today

Theresa Pollak: The Wonder of Life
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia 
September 7 – October 26, 2018
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCUarts), Theresa Pollak: The Wonder of Life celebrates the transformative impact the school’s founder had from the Great Depression through the Civil Rights Movement and her enduring legacy today. Installed on the second floor of Reynolds Gallery, the exhibition unfolds chronologically, tracing Pollak’s biography, formative experiences, and pedagogical philosophies through archival materials from the VCU James Branch Cabell Library Special Collections and Archives and the artist’s paintings and drawings from the Theresa Pollak Estate. Spanning three centuries, the exhibition illuminates Pollak’s underexplored yet formative role in the bourgeoning art world and the professionalization of arts programs in the United States. Curated by Sarah Kleinman with the generous support of the Pollak Society.  

Reviewed in Richmond Magazine
Reviewed in Style Weekly
Highlighted in VCUarts News

Programs
Theresa Pollak: A Retrospective Exhibition, presentation by Sarah Kleinman
VCUarts Dean’s Office and the Pollak Society, July 19, 2018

Breaking Boundaries: Pollak Society Exhibition Preview
Reynolds Gallery, September 6, 2018

VCUarts 90th Anniversary Day of Celebration
Multiple locations, April 18, 2019

Dean Sean Brixey, Keynote Address, PowerPoint and script written by Sarah Kleinman
Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University

Richmond Professional Institute, VCUarts, VCU Alumni Panel Discussion on the Legacy of Theresa Pollak
James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University


Ron Johnson: Distorted Horizons
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
September 7 – October 26, 2018

Distorted Horizons presents paintings on panel and new paintings on Plexiglas by Ron Johnson. It is Johnson’s sixth solo show at Reynolds Gallery. Every summer, Johnson embarks on a two-week cross-country trek. Each time the route changes, lending spontaneity to an explorative—almost fantastical—journey. Crossing the Kansas plains to wind down into the Grand Canyon and up the coast of California, he photographs landscape after landscape, capturing their variations in light, color, and line. Back in the studio, these scenes directly influence his compositional decisions, grounding his mirage-like paintings in natural elements. Coordinated by Alice Livingston, Janie Hall, and Sarah Kleinman.

Summer Steals
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
July 12 – August 31, 2018
The 2018 edition of Summer Steals brings together artists based in Brooklyn, Charlottesville, Marfa, and New Haven who employ distinct and robust approaches to abstraction. Presenting dazzling works from emerging talents alongside established artists including Katie Barrie, Patrick Berran, Reid Dodson, Meghan Gerety, Jason Keith, Matt Kleberg, Carlton Newton, Eva Rocha, Elizabeth Schoyer, Katie Shaw, Susan Svendsen, Kazue Taguchi, and Natalie Westbrook. Coordinated by Alice Livingston, Janie Hall, and Sarah Kleinman. 


Elizabeth Gilfilen: Shorthand
Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia
July 12 – August 31, 2018
Shorthand presents Elizabeth Gilfilen’s recent outpouring of large-scale oil paintings. These evocative, sophisticated, and atmospheric works comprise the artist’s first solo exhibition at Reynolds Gallery. Gilfilen’s abstractions embrace spontaneity and gesture, as well as thought and contemplation. Starting with an untouched ground, Gilfilen applies washes of pigment that concurrently retreat and advance, often unfurling into brushy, gestural markings. Here, the notation is of primary concern. Fluctuating in vehemence, each mark evidences the artist’s hand— purposive, spontaneous, and altogether present. Movement is omnipresent. Gilfilen's restrained color palette amplifies this immediacy, inviting the viewer to discover something previously unrealized—a nebulous form, an abstracted landscape, a faintly familiar visage— a refreshing ambiguity that makes Gilfilen's work both delightful and challenging. Coordinated by Alice Livingston, Janie Hall, and Sarah Kleinman.


Every Waking Color: A Solo Exhibition
Alpine Gallery, Cherry Creek North, Denver, Colorado
August 5 – September 17, 2010

Curated by Nicholas King and Sarah Kleinman. 


Cambio de Clima y Medio Ambiente: El Arte del Retrato y El Texto
Garden Gallery, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi Campus, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Museo de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala
October 2009 – March 2010

International traveling group exhibition, by invitation. Organized by George Rivera and ARTNAUTS.
Exhibition assistant at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City, Sarah Kleinman.
Exhibition catalogue. 


Ecology
Museo de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala
October 2009

International traveling group exhibition, by invitation. Organized by George Rivera and ARTNAUTS.
Exhibition assistant, Sarah Kleinman.

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Exhibitions

My experiences as an academically trained studio artist fueled my pursuit of art historical inquiry and exhibition-making. For a record of my artistic contributions to exhibitions, see my Studio Art companion site. 

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