Staff Profile

Janet C. Bishop, Curator of Painting and Sculpture

Janet C. Bishop has served as curator of painting and sculpture at SFMOMA since 2000. As curator, Bishop is responsible for the acquisition, research, presentation and interpretation of objects in the permanent collection of painting and sculpture and for the organization of special exhibitions. In collaboration with the senior curator of painting and sculpture, Bishop oversees Matisse and Beyond: A Century of Modernism—Painting and Sculpture from the Permanent Collection, SFMOMA's ongoing survey of 20th- and 21st-century art.

Bishop's exhibition projects include the San Francisco presentation of Magritte (2000); the special exhibition Fact/Fiction: Contemporary Art that Walks the Line (2000); and the collection-based exhibitions Points of Departure I & II: Connecting with Contemporary Art (2001), Of the Moment: Contemporary Art from the Permanent Collection (2000) and New Work: Painting Today, Recent Acquisitions (1999). She was part of the curatorial team for 010101: Art in Technological Times (2001), Present Tense: Nine Artists in the Nineties (1997) and exhibitions of the work of Robert Arneson and David Park in 1997. Bishop is also curator of SFMOMA's biennial SECA Art Award exhibitions, which in 2008 will honor Bay Area artists Tauba Auerbach, Desirée Holman, Jordan Kantor, and Trevor Paglen.

Bishop received her B.A. in art history and psychology from Cornell University in 1985 and her M.A. in art history from Columbia University in 1988. She joined SFMOMA as a curatorial assistant in 1988, was promoted to Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture in 1992, and in 1997 was named Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture. She was promoted to curator of painting and sculpture in 2000. Prior to joining SFMOMA, Bishop worked as a conservation assistant in the division of drawings and archives at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University (1987–88) and in the print room at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University (1984–85).