Michele Thursz

Statement:

As a curator, I look at the artist’s process as a map of the now. In this action, all my exhibitions, productions are conceptualized.

Art and Life surpass the expected.

Michele Thursz is an independent curator, contemporary art consultant, and appraiser based in New York City. She has directed contemporary and outsider art galleries, media collectives, and art advisory companies and consulted private collections.

She studied painting and art history at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received an MA in Curatorial Practice from The School of Visual Arts. She completed the Appraisal Studies program at NYU (in conjunction with the Appraisers Association of America). She specializes in post-war, contemporary, and emerging art as an appraiser. She has written and submitted contemporary art appraisals for insurance inventory purposes and charitable donations for IRS income tax purposes. She is an accredited member of the Appraisers Association of America. In addition, she is Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) compliant through July 2026.

Additionally, she provided appraisal services to art collectors on art-related business as a disinterested party to transactions. She advocates for works of art that cannot speak for themselves. She provides valuation for independent information before entering into a purchase agreement for collectors and develops and manages inventory systems for private collections.

As an appraiser specializing in pre-war, contemporary, and emerging art valuation for estate, insurance, and charitable donations for IRS purposes, she has written donation reports for artworks by Mark Bradford, Betty Saar, Roman Oplaka, Francesco Clemente, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Man Ray, John Chamberlain, Jenny Holzer, Richard Prince, Donald Judd, Nam June Paik, Cindy Sherman, Tracey Moffat, KAWS and more.

Thursz cofounded and directed Moving Image Gallery (MIG), NYC, one of the first galleries to show contemporary artists using electronic and computer-based mediums. Later, she founded A Post Media Network, which introduced a cross-section of artists under the guise of contemporary practice, including electronic media, painting, sculpture, and concept-driven works. MIG and Post Media Network exhibited works by artists such as Ellen Gallagher, Kelley Walker, Reynold Reynolds, Robert Lazarini, Cory Arcangel, Rafael Lorenzo-Hemmer, Tobias Bernstrup, Paul Miller (a.k.a. DJ Spooky), Michelle Handelman, Siebreen Versteeg, Tal Hadad, Andy Warhol, Kendall Geers, and more. As an independent curator, she specializes in contemporary, screen-based, and technology-driven artworks, organizing exhibitions for regional and international museums and galleries.

She has written and led public conversations about contemporary art and related professional issues as a guest cultural producer and a critic for Creative Capital, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon, and taught thesis writing and research for the MFA department, The School of Visual Arts, NYC. Recently, she co-organized a colloquium, Projects and Platforms: Exploring the Culture of NFTs. She co-authored an article, Wave Phenomena: Contemporary Strategies of Sonic Agency, University of California, Academic Journal, Resonance: Sound and Culture.

Her actions have been reviewed and featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Wired, Art Forum, Art in America, Frieze, LA Times, Asia Art Pacific, and more.

Affiliation:

Accredited Member of Appraisers Association of America

Board of Directors, Harvestworks Digital Media Art Center, New York

Editorial Board, University of California, Academic Journal, Resonance: Sound and Culture