I am a Chicagoan in Toronto, a parent, and an autodidact. I am passionate about the media and publishing ecosystem, knowledge- and project-management frameworks and tools, photography and contemporary art, places and their pasts, NBA basketball, ambient and experimental electronic music, and baking. Through my work, I enjoy helping people and organizations do two things: tell their stories compellingly and devise patterns that make their work more calm and rewarding.

I recently joined the staff of Frontier, a design studio in Toronto, as Editorial Director. I write Frontier Magazine, which offers weekly essays bringing together ideas from art, architecture, technology, and education about how creativity accelerates positive change. I also host its related podcast, with a new season launching in September 2023.

In the last few years, I have put my strategic, editorial, administrative, and people skills to work for a range of creative companies and arts organizations. My current or recent collaborators include the The Image Centre, FRONT International, Bløk, the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Circle Books, Mendes Wood DM, the Moderna Museet, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation.

I arrived here through work in the contemporary-art world. I spent a decade in arts publishing, including five years on the editorial staff of Artforum and nearly two years at Aperture Foundation. In that time I wrote hundreds of reviews, reported pieces, and essays for institutions like the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum. I still occasionally contribute to exhibition catalogues, artist books, and art magazines.

In 2013, I moved to the institutional side of the art world by joining the Cincinnati Art Museum as its curator of photography. I later became executive director of Gallery TPW, a nonprofit artist-run center, before going independent from 2018–22.

I am married to artist Julia Dault. We have two young sons, Walker and Rowan.

§

Email me at brian@sholis.com or follow me via RSS.

Set in Untitled Sans and Blanco
Site designed by Ross Zurowski and built with Kirby
Last updated July 27, 2023