Michael Rooks
Michael Rooks joined the High Museum as Wieland Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art in January 2010. Besides his responsibilities at the High Museum, Rooks was appointed Commissioner and co-curator of the U.S. Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2010. Prior to joining the High Museum, Mr. Rooks held curator positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts. At Chicagos Museum of Contemporary Art, Rooks curated several group exhibitions and solo projects in addition to survey exhibitions of work by Roy Lichtenstein (1999) and H. C. Westermann (2001) for which he co-authored Westermanns catalogue rasionné. As curator at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu Rooks curated more than 15 exhibitions including projects by Michael Lin, Paul Morrison, and Yoshitomo Nara. Exhibitions at the High Museum of Art have included Workshopping: An American Model of Architectural Practice (U.S. Pavilion at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia in 2010), KAWS: DOWN TIME, and two historical survey exhibitions entitled Picasso to Warhol: 14 Modern Masters and Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913-2013. In conjunction with Fast Forward, Rooks commissioned major projects by Sarah Sze and Aaron Curry. Photo by P. Seth Thompson