David Thorp (born 26 March 1947) is an independent curator and director. He curated GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy of Arts and Wide Open Spaces at PS1 MoMA New York, among many others. He was Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Henry Moore Foundation and was also director of the South London Gallery, The Showroom and Chisenhale. He has been Associate Director for Artes Mundi, the biannual contemporary art exhibition and prize at the National Museum of Wales, and following the death of Michael Stanley in late September 2012 was appointed Interim Director at Modern Art Oxford. He was a member of the Turner Prize jury in 2004. Since the beginning of 2005 David Thorp has been an independent curator organising and initiating various projects in the UK and abroad. Thorp has held the positions of International Adjunct Curator at PS1 MoMA New York, Associate Curator at Platform China, Beijing, Curator of the Frank Cohen Collection, one of the most important collections of contemporary art in the UK.
Thorp writes extensively on contemporary art and has sat on numerous selection panels for art awards both in the UK and abroad.
Early life
Thorp was born and educated in London attending a Foundation course at Camberwell College of Arts. He studied at Hammersmith College and completed a Master's degree at Flinders University in South Australia. His first major curatorial assignment came in Australia in 1985 when Thorp curated the exhibition programme for the 1986 Adelaide Festival.
Chisenhale Gallery
When Thorp returned from Australia to the UK he was active in the development of the contemporary art scene in the East End of London as a part of which Thorp established Chisenhale Gallery. In 1986 Thorp became director of Chisenhale Gallery. He curated a programme of exhibitions of emerging artists from the UK and abroad and converted the gallery, which had been a shell when he arrived. Before his appointment Chisenhale was unestablished as an exhibition space and was principally occupied as artists studios. Thorp showed works by Ron Haselden presented the collective show "Ruins of Glamour, Glamour of Ruins" with Art in Ruins, Stewart Home, Ed Baxter, and others. Thorp has always worked with living artists at the forefront of experimental visual culture.
The Showroom
Thorp stayed in the East End to develop a second public gallery, The Showroom, which had been underused for some time, and curated an exhibition programme that made it one of London's most interesting experimental galleries. Both Chisenhale and The Showroom continue to maintain a thriving presence on the London contemporary art scene. During his time from 1988 until 1992 as director of The Showroom, Thorp presented seminal new works by Art in Ruins, Mona Hatoum, Rasheed Araeen and Marc Chaimowicz. He contributed to the signature aspect of The Showroom's exhibition policy – the offer of an artist's first solo show in London – was developed and refined so that the focus became the commissioning of individual artists to make new work for the space. During his time at The Showroom Thorp also worked as an independent curator. He organised exhibitions of contemporary art from the former Soviet Union and India as well as several other exhibitions in London and the regions. In 1990 Thorp curated an exhibition of contemporary British art that was shown in Kiev and Moscow.
The South London Gallery
Thorp was appointed as Director of the South London Gallery in 1992, the exhibition programme began to focus on the latest developments in contemporary art and the Gallery came to be known as the South London Gallery. Under Thorp's direction the South London Gallery became one of London's foremost venues for contemporary art. Thorp developed a programme of exhibitions and events that included education activities, talks, live art, and public art projects. After a gap of ten years, the SLG began once again to collect contemporary works relating to South London with the help of the Contemporary Art Society (CAS). Presenting solo shows featuring artists such as Julian Schnabel, Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin and correspondingly exhibiting works by Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Damien Hirst, Mat Collishaw. Purchases in this period included pieces by Antony Gormley, Anish Kapoor and Tracey Emin. Under Thorp's direction SLG received a major 1996 Prudential Arts Award for excellence in the arts. In 1997 Thorp was nominated for a Prudential Creative Briton award.