Elizabeth Chodos

Assistant Professor | Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA, UNITED STATES

Elizabeth Chodos has focused her career on promoting the work of contemporary artists through higher education and public programming.

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Biography

Elizabeth Chodos is the director of the Miller Institute for Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon. She joined the university in fall 2017 from Ox-Bow, school of art and artists’ residency (Saugatuck, Michigan), where she most recently served as executive and creative director. To date, Chodos has focused her career on promoting the work of contemporary artists through residencies, higher education, exhibitions and public programming, and she hopes to continue that at Miller ICA.

“I believe deeply that art has the power to transform and that contemporary art offers society a vehicle to participate directly in social change,” she said. “Miller ICA has a history of blending rigorous exhibition practices with higher education, and it is an honor to join the gallery and continue this work.”

Since it first opened 16 years ago, Miller ICA has evolved from regionally focused exhibitions to curating and presenting challenging contemporary work by national and international artists. Recently, Dan J. Martin, dean of the College of Fine Arts, updated the gallery’s direction to better reflect its benefits as an asset for the university. The gallery’s vision and focus was expanded from a conventional environment exhibiting work almost exclusively by external artists into a combined gallery, teaching and research space that creates targeted projects linked directly to the university’s curricular and creative/research interests.

Chodos said leading the Miller ICA into the future particularly appeals to her because of Carnegie Mellon’s reputation as a renowned research institution. The combination of a rich research environment and extensive arts programs is a setting, she said, that creates connections across fields and demonstrates how “arts, politics, science and technology intertwine and overlap.” She hopes to offer exhibitions and related public programming, publications and interactive web-based platforms that spark conversation about our society and topical issues that matter locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

She is dedicated to making Miller ICA “open to all,” helping to ensure that exhibitions and programming appeal to a diverse group of individuals who want to experience contemporary art that makes a statement about and truly affects our lives in today’s campus environment, community and the world.

Areas of Expertise (5)

Higher Education

Public Art

Arts and Creative Expression

Contemporary Art

Curatorial Practice

Media Appearances (6)

A New Era for CMU's Institute for Contemporary Art

Market Insider online

2022-09-28

"In addition to the synergies created by the move, the ICA will grow to 25,000 square feet, allowing it to attract significantly more visitors, which currently exceed 10,000 annually. The university expects that the additional space and resources will enable the ICA to expand its programming at the ICA, specifically by hosting more exhibitions, lectures, screenings and live performances. 'For more than two decades, the ICA has evolved to meet the rapidly changing landscape of contemporary art,' said Elizabeth Chodos, director of the ICA. 'This new chapter will strengthen the ICA's connection to our community, cultural institutions in Pittsburgh and contemporary art discourse at large. We are excited by this opportunity to reimagine the role cultural institutions can play in advancing culture and building a better world.'"

Miller ICA Presents "Jacolby Satterwhite: Spirits Roaming on the Earth"

Carnegie Mellon University News online

2021-08-12

Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Institute for Contemporary Art is pleased to present "Jacolby Satterwhite: Spirits Roaming on the Earth," the first major monographic survey of Satterwhite's wide-ranging practice. Curated by Elizabeth Chodos, director of the Miller ICA, "Spirits Roaming on the Earth" traces 10 years of Satterwhite's panoramic oeuvre. The exhibition will open Saturday, Aug. 14, and run through Sunday, Dec. 5, with a book launch and reception to be announced.

Jenny Holzer launched a new public artwork campaign encouraging voter participation in swing states.

Artsy online

2020-10-15

Elizabeth Chodos, Director of The Miller Institute for Contemporary Art at Carnegie Mellon University, said of the campaign: "This project is so important to mobilize voting because Holzer distills the chaotic experience of the contemporary political climate by offering phrases that are hauntingly true and resonate. These truths are motivating because they engender a kind of confidence in a dizzying moment in time when faith in institutions of all kinds is completely destabilized."

Pittsburgh Artists Share Window Views On New Instagram Series

WESA News online

2020-05-25

“It’s really about also creating kind of portrait of Pittsburgh in this moment, and creating an archive of what it looks like through the pandemic, though the viewpoint of artists,” said Miller ICA director Elizabeth Chodos.

Miller Institute for Contemporary Art explores bounds of tech and humanity with Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI

Pittsburgh City Paper online

2018-10-10

Paradox: The Body in the Age of AI, the latest exhibition at Carnegie Mellon University’s Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, confronts the question of preserving humanity at the dawn of the AI age. Curated by Miller Institute director, Elizabeth Chodos, the show takes inspiration from the Moravec Paradox, the theory that programming AI to perform complex tasks is far simpler than mimicking that which comes second nature to humans — in other words, it’s easier to teach a robot to play chess than it is to teach it how to walk or see. With that in mind, a press release states that the show’s chosen artists “consider the body’s elusive and underestimated power” and question how we can create cyborgs when we still barely understand the mysteries of the human body.

Elizabeth Chodos Named Director of Carnegie Mellon’s Miller Gallery

ArtForum online

2017-07-12

Carnegie Mellon University’s Regina Gouger Miller Gallery has appointed Elizabeth Chodos as director. Chodos joins CMU from the Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency in Saugatuck, Michigan, where she has worked since 2010, most recently as executive and creative director.