Matthew Higgs writes: I first met Ted on a trip to the Bay Area in, I think, 1999. I'd been invited there—from London—to do studio visits by a group of MFA students at CCAC (as it was known at the time.) Somehow the students had taken control of the budget for visiting tutors! This is when I first met Ted, who I think was already working as the exhibition preparator at the recently founded CCAC Wattis Institute (Larry Rinder was the inaugural director.) Myself and Ted were both friends with the late-great book dealer and curator Steven Leiber (1957-2012), who I had first met in London in the early 1990s. We—myself, Ted, and Steven —bonded over our shared, and it must be said nerd-like passion for artist's printed ephemera and all forms of conceptual art! When I eventually moved to the Bay Area to become the curator at the Wattis in the fall of 2001 myself and Ted became both friends and colleagues. It's still hard to comprehend that Ted, Steven, and our Wattis co-conspirator Leigh Markopoulos are no longer with us. They are all greatly missed.

 

Matthew Higgs is director and chief curator of White Columns, an alternative art space in New York. He has organized over 250 artist projects and exhibitions, and written for more than 50 publications and art magazines. Born in the U.K., Higgs trained and worked as an artist before becoming known for his independent publishing and curatorial projects. Prior to his work in New York, Higgs served as curator of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of the Arts, and later the co-chair of the College's MFA program, and continues to collaborate with the nonprofit organization Creative Growth, which supports developmentally disabled artists.

 

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