Experience

Aspen Art Museum

• United States
• Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos
• 1 - 100 Employee

• CEO/ Artistic Director

  • Mar 2020 - Present



Serpentine Gallery

• London, England, United Kingdom

• Senior Curator Public Programmes

  • Apr 2008 - Apr 2013

  For five years Nicola Lees worked as Senior Curator of Public Programmes at the Serpentine Gallery, London where she oversaw interdisciplinary, time-based and performance projects. Lees’ programming has included the annual Park Nights series of site-specific commissions for the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, which has recently included artists: Becky Beasley, Oscar Murillo, James Richards and Alexandre Singh. Participants in the series were encouraged by Lees to take a trans-disciplinary approach, with commissions including Helen Marten’s first film, Dust and Piranhas (2011) and Michael Dean’s first piece of theatre, Acts of Grass (2011). Lees also worked closely with artists exhibiting at the Serpentine Gallery, including Jonas Mekas and Wolfgang Tillmans. From 2008, Lees co-curated the Serpentine Gallery Marathon; working closely with Hans Ulrich Obrist to programme a series of two-day, interdisciplinary events that bring together world-renowned and emerging practitioners across all fields, from the arts to the sciences. In 2009, Lees initiated the Serpentine Cinema series (programmed with Victoria Brooks, Curator, EMPAC). With screenings of new work, rare archival footage and work-in-progress, the series intended to support artists’ filmmaking in a cinema context. Participants have included: Dara Birnbaum, Declan Clarke, Owen Land, Rivane Neuenschwander, Lili Reynaud-Dewar, Wael Shawky, Corin Sworn with Guy de Cointet and Javier Tellez. Throughout her work Lees is committed to the research and development of education strategies, which has culminated in a number of conferences including ‘Deschooling Society’ produced in collaboration with the Hayward Gallery (with Sally Tallant, Director, Liverpool Biennale and Janna Graham). Show less



IMMA - Irish Museum of Modern Art

• Ireland
• Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Assistant Curator

  • 2006 - 2008

  At the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Lees worked on Philippe Parreno’s group exhibition ‘.all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reGGae. and retrospective exhibitions of ‘Miroslaw Balka: Tristes Tropiques’ and ‘Alex Katz New York’. Independently, she has curated the group exhibition Left Pop: ‘Bringing it Back Home at the 2nd Moscow Biennale’ (with Diana Baldon and Georgina Jackson). At the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Lees worked on Philippe Parreno’s group exhibition ‘.all hawaii eNtrées / luNar reGGae. and retrospective exhibitions of ‘Miroslaw Balka: Tristes Tropiques’ and ‘Alex Katz New York’. Independently, she has curated the group exhibition Left Pop: ‘Bringing it Back Home at the 2nd Moscow Biennale’ (with Diana Baldon and Georgina Jackson).