Michael Darling is the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, where he has organized the exhibitions Pandora’s Box: Joseph Cornell Unlocks the MCA Collection, The Language of Less (Then and Now), IAIN BAXTER&: Works 1958-2011, Ron Terada: Being There, David Hartt: Stray Light, Phantom Limb: Approaches to Painting Today, and Think First, Shoot Later: Photographs from the MCA Collection. More recent exhibitions include Isa Genzken: Retrospective and Anne Collier. Previously, Darling was the Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). His exhibitions at SAM included Kurt, Target Practice: Painting Under Attack, 1949-78, Thermostat: Video and the Pacific Northwest, along with exhibits on the work of Su-Mei Tse, Nicolas Provost, Geoff McFetridge, Enrico David, Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen. Prior to SAM, Darling was associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, where he curated the exhibitions Roy McMakin: A Door Meant as Adornment, Sam Durant, Painting in Tongues, and The Architecture of R.M. Schindler. He also organized Superflat in collaboration with the artist Takashi Murakami. Darling received his BA in art history from Stanford University and his MA and PhD in art and architectural history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Darling frequently serves as a panelist, lecturer, and guest curator on contemporary art and architecture. 

Locust Projects is pleased to announce its fourth year of Locust Talks, a lecture series that hosts visiting directors and curators from innovative institutions across the country and internationally for public lectures at the gallery space, followed by individual studio visits with local artists, fostering a rigorous critical dialogue about art in the community.