Melanie O'Brian
Melanie O'Brian (born 1973 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian curator of contemporary art based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was Director and Curator of Simon Fraser University Art Galleries, including Audain, Teck, and SFU gallery from 2012-2020. O’Brian was Curator/Head of Programs at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery 2011-12, Director/Curator of Artspeak 2004-10 and Assistant Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery 2001-2004. O'Brian has taught at Emily Carr University, Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia. O’Brian received her MA in Art History at the University of Chicago , Chicago IL, and her BA in Art History from Reed College, Portland, Oregon. Education. O’Brian received her MA in Art History at the University of Chicago, Chicago IL, and her BA in Art History from Reed College, Portland, Oregon. Career. She was Assistant Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery 2001-2004, Director/Curator at Artspeak 2004-2010, the Curator/Head of Programs at The Power Plant in Toronto 2011-2012, and Director/Curator of Simon Fraser University Galleries 2012-2020. She is the editor of numerous publications including "$5 Handshake: Art on Treaty 8 Territory" (SFU Galleries, 2018), editor  (with Milena Hoegberg) of "5,000 Feet is the Best: Omer Fast" (The Power Plant/Henie Onstad Center/Sternberg Press, 2012); Stan Douglas: Entertainment (The Power Plant, 2011); "Judgment and Contemporary Art Criticism" with Jeff Khonsary (Fillip/Artspeak, 2010); and "Vancouver Art & Economies" (Arsenal Pulp Press/Artspeak, 2007). At The Power Plant she curated solo exhibitions of work by Kerry Tribe, Stan Douglas, Omer Fast, and Simon Fujiwara, and group exhibitions that included the work of Abbas Akhavan, Karen Cytter, Geoffrey Farmer, Claire Fontaine, Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys, Oscar Tuazon, Ulla von Brandenburg, and Franz West, among others. _ At  SFU Galleries she curated solo exhibitions of work by Hito Steyerl, Walid Raad, Raymond Boisjoly, Marianne Nicolson, Andreas Bunte and Richard Ibghy and Marilou Lemmens, as well as co-curated group exhibitions such as "Maps and Dreams" with Brian Jungen, "This Now, More Than Ever" with Steve Collis, and "Geometry of Knowing" and "Through a Window: Visual Art and SFU 1965-2015" with Amy Kazymerchyk. She was a contributing curator to "MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture"at the Vancouver Art Gallery.