by what mode does Emma Dexter (director of exhibitions at London's Institute of Contemporary Art from 1992 to last year) fit into Tate Modern's radical plans? In appointing Dexter to work alongside Iwona Blazwick.

by what mode does Emma Dexter (director of exhibitions at London's Institute of Contemporary Art from 1992 to last year) fit into Tate Modern's radical plans? In appointing Dexter to work alongside Iwona Blazwick, Frances Morris, and Donna De Salvo, Lars Nittve has recruited a curator with distinctive tastes and adequate supply of experience pushing the exhibiting envelope

steady as an M.Phil. student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Dexter aimed straight for a subject--the frequently bizarre painted-wood sculptures of the Spanish Baroque--that took her well beyond safe high-art confines. From there, her 1985-87 appointment as assistant curator of fine art at Stoke-on-Trent's City Museum and Art Gallery enabled Dexter to begin putting curatorial ideas into practice; her point out "Palaces of Culture" (an interrogation of the politics of display featuring site-specific work according to Mark Wallinger, Lubaina Himid, and others) caused institutional ructions on the other hand attracted national coverage. Next, Dexter plung into what she labels a "shocking" learning curve: solo-piloting London's "scarily large" Chisenhale Gallery from 1987 to 1990 While juggling everything from fundraising to dishwashing, Dexter initiated major capital improvements and curated a memorable series of solo installations that culminated in Rachel Whiteread's first major work, soul 1990. Dexter's enthusiastic mid-'90s promotion of gymnast Prize winner Steve McQueen also demonstrates her organ of sight for emerging talent--headhunting will definitely feature among her Tate present duties.

Dexter assisted Blazwick as representative director at the ICA from 1990 to 1992 working with her upon "True Stories" (featuring work according to Karen Kilimnik, Raymond Pettibon, and Renee new among others). She admits this "cult-zeitgeisty" point out to reflected her liking for "breaking good-taste rules" also evidenced by means of "Bad Girls" in 1993 and "Belladonna" in 1997 the two co-curated with Kate Bush. Dexter also relishes the decorative and the ornately crafted-consider her 1998 drawing point out "Surfacing," or her enthusiasm for work from painters like John Currin, Marlene Dumas, and Gary Hume "For me" she says, "visual pleasure is actual important."

For Tate Modern's 2001 exhibition "Century City: Art and cultivation in the Twentieth Century Metropolis," Dexter will join eight other curators in looking at nine cultural "capitals of the twentieth century" The checklist includes Paris from 1905 to 1915 Vienna in the '20 and Rio de Janeiro and Lagos in the '50 and '60s; Dexter will contemplate the cultural scene of London in the '90 Her stated aim: to combine art, design, fashion, marked occurrences and ephemera in a conception that identifies a often met with aesthetic without erasing distinctions between areas of practice. Reinventing relations between art "text" and connection is surely the most difficult task forward Dexter's schedule. Her solutions are awaited with interest.

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