Benjamin Genocchio

Benjamin Genocchio (born 1969) is an Australian art critic and non-fiction writer. Since October 2019 he has been director-at-large for Shoshana Wayne in Los Angeles and New York.[1]

Benjamin Genocchio
Born1969
Sydney
NationalityAustralian
EducationNewington College
University of Sydney
OccupationArt critic
SpouseMelissa Chiu
WebsiteOfficial website

He worked as an art critic for The New York Times, and then as editor-in-chief of Art+Auction magazine, Modern Painters magazine and the website "artinfo.com".[2][3] He was director of the Armory Show until November 2017, when he was ousted following allegations of sexual harassment,[4] which he denied.[5] He was previously editor-in-chief of Artnet News, where he also faced accusations of sexual harassment.[5][6][7][8]

Family and education

Genocchio was born in Sydney, New South Wales, in 1969, the second of four sons of an Italian father, Giorgio, who worked on a cruise ship, and an Australian mother, Jennifer.[9] Genocchio grew up in Lane Cove[10] and attended Newington College from 1981 to 1986.[11] As a youth he had a short attention span and a low boredom threshold, traits he says led him to become an art critic.[12] Genocchio completed a PhD in history of art at the University of Sydney in 1996.[13][14] He is a citizen of Australia and Italy.[15]

Career

In late December 2002 Genocchio moved to New York to begin writing for The New York Times.[12] In 2008 he published Dollar Dreaming, an exposé of corruption and double-dealing in the $500-million trade in Aboriginal art in Australia and abroad.[16][17]

In early 2010 he became editorial director at Louise Blouin Media, and editor-in-chief of Art+Auction magazine, Modern Painters and artinfo.com. He left the post at Modern Painters in 2011.[18]

Genocchio left Blouin Media in January 2014[19] and joined Artnet, where he was made editor-in-chief of Artnet News, a 24-hour art news website.[20] In December 2015 he was appointed director of the Armory Show.[6] He was ousted in November 2017 after multiple accusations of sexual harassment were made against him that extended to his time at Louise Blouin Media, Artnet and the Armory.[5][4][21] He denied the accusation in a statement saying that while he had conflicts with employees, he never acted inappropriately, and apologized for any behavior perceived as disrespectful.[5]

In October 2019 he was director-at-large for the Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles and New York.[1]

Personal life

In 2014 Genocchio lived in New York state. He is married to curator Melissa Chiu,[22] with whom he wrote Asian Art Now.[23] In September 2015, The Washington Post reported that Genocchio had edited the content of Chiu's Wikipedia entry in order to remove negative commentary about her work at the Hirshhorn and to add laudatory statements.[24]

Publications
  • Dollar Dreaming: The Rise of the Aboriginal Art Market[25]
  • Fiona Foley: Solitaire[26]
  • The Art of Persuasion, Australian Art Criticism[27]
  • Simeon Nelson, Passages[28]
  • (ed.) What is Installation?[29]
  • Asian Contemporary Art
  • (ed.) Contemporary Asian Art, A Critical Reader

References
  1. "Ousted Armory Show Director Benjamin Genocchio Now Working for L.A.-Based Shoshana Wayne Gallery". ARTnews. 25 October 2019.
  2. "Benjamin Genocchio". ABC News. 8 August 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  3. "Benjamin Genocchio". DLD Conference. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  4. Freeman, Nate (8 November 2017). "Benjamin Genocchio Out as Executive Director of the Armory Show Amid Allegations of Sexual Harassment [Updated]". ARTnews. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  5. Pogrebin, Robin (November 8, 2017). "Art Fair Director Replaced After Being Accused of Sex Harassment". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  6. Pogrebin, Robin (17 December 2015). "Benjamin Genocchio of Artnet to Head Armory Show". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  7. Vogel, Carol (12 December 2013). "Steve McQueen Among 6 Hugo Boss Prize Finalists". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  8. Adam, Georgina (20 December 2013). "Sotheby's agrees to return 10th-century Cambodian statue". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  9. "High art". www.stevedow.com.au. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  10. Molitorisz, Sacha (16 September 2010). "Thrills, spills, action - that's movie material". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. Newington College Register of Past Students 1863-1998 (Syd, 1999), pp. 71.
  12. Steve Dow (18 July 2010). Rising high in the art world. The Sun Herald (Sydney, Australia), p. 8.
  13. "Slander, Scandal And Sgarbi". Forbes. 17 April 2002. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  14. "In Store for a Change: The Artwork of Phyllis Goldberg by Katherine Jentleson". CUE Art Foundation. 7 August 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  15. Shaw, John (23 May 2002). "ARTS ABROAD; Touch of Opera Buffa for Italian Old Masters Down Under". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
  16. "Art critic hopes to educate others on Aboriginal art and the people, lives behind it", Daily Bruin.
  17. "Dollar Dreaming lifts the lid on Aboriginal art industry", Courier Mail.
  18. Artinfo Archived 30 October 2013 at archive.today
  19. "Benjamin Genocchio To Lead Art Net's Global Art Market Newswire: Artnet News". Media Wired Daily. January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 November 2015.
  20. Carol Vogel (12 December 2013). Steve McQueen Among 6 Hugo Boss Prize Finalists. The New York Times. Accessed September 2015.
  21. "Benjamin Genocchio Is No Longer Director of the Armory Show Following Sexual Harassment Allegations | artnet News". artnet News. 8 November 2017. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  22. "Melissa Chiu Named Head of Hirshhorn Museum". Artnet.com. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  23. "Hiroshi Sugimoto in Conversation with Melissa Chiu". asiasociety.org/. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  24. Heil, E. "Reliable Source: Hirshhorn museum director’s husband scrubs her Wikipedia entry of controversy", The Washington Post, September 18, 2015.
  25. Gennochio, Ben (8 April 2019). "Dollar dreaming: inside the Aboriginal art world". Hardie Grant – via National Library of Australia (new catalog).
  26. "Fiona Foley: solitaire", National Library of Australia Catalogue
  27. Genocchio, Benjamin (8 April 2019). The art of persuasion: Australian art criticism 1950-2001. Craftsman House. OCLC 52686271.
  28. Genocchio, Benjamin; Nelson, Simeon (8 April 2019). Simeon Nelson: passages. UNSW Press. OCLC 50381449.
  29. University of Illinois Press - What is Installation Archived 6 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine

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