Please join us for an online conversation between Chief Curator Amanda Donnan and Chief Curator of the Farnsworth Art Museum, Jaime DeSimone, as they discuss the current exhibition Flying Woman: The Paintings of Katherine Bradford. Organized by the Portland Museum of Art in Maine and curated by Jaime DeSimone, this exhibition is the first museum survey of the East Coast painter. Known for her vibrant palette, eccentric compositions, and personal, unpredictable approach to figurative painting, Katherine Bradford’s semitransparent figures often defy society’s expectations of women and all genders and serve as surrogates for a mother, painter, and lesbian coming of age at the turn of the twenty-first century. 

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Amanda Donnan is Chief Curator at the Frye Art Museum, where she has overseen the artistic program and organized numerous exhibitions since 2017. Previously she served as Director/Curator of the galleries at Seattle University, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and Production Coordinator at Art21 in New York. She holds an MA in art history from SUNY Stony Brook and a dual BFA/BS in studio art and art education from the Pennsylvania State University. 

Jaime DeSimone is the Chief Curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine. Prior to joining the Farnsworth in summer 2022, DeSimone served as the Robert and Elizabeth Nanovic Curator of Contemporary Art at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine from 2018-2022, where she curated the exhibitions Flying Woman: The Paintings of Katherine Bradford (2022), North Atlantic Triennial (2022), Richard Estes: Urban Landscapes (2021), Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe: Tabernacles for Trying Times (2020), and Ragnar Kjartansson: Scenes from Western Culture (2019–20). In 2019, she was the recipient of the prestigious Curatorial Research Fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for research and travel in connection with the North Atlantic Triennial. DeSimone is also a current scholar in the Fulbright Arctic Initiative III (2021-2022). She served in other curatorial positions at MOCA Jacksonville (2014-2018) and the Addison Gallery of American Art (2005-2012). She holds degrees in art history, with a specialization in Contemporary Art, from American University (MA, 2005) and Bates College (BA, 2001). 

ABOUT THE CURATORIAL CONVERSATIONS SERIES

Frye members are invited to listen, learn, and engage with curators, artists, and the creative community in our members-only virtual series. This quarterly program features a live virtual discussion followed by a 15-minute Q+A.