Saul Ostrow

Saul Ostrow is an American art critic and art curator.

In 1972 Ostrow received his MFA in art from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has taught at Pratt Institute, Syracuse University, Parsons The New School for Design, School of the Visual Arts and was acting head of MFA studio program at New York University and Director of the Center for Visual Art and Culture at The University of Connecticut.

Since 1987, Ostrow has curated over 80 exhibitions in the US and abroad. These include such exhibitions as Working Digitally: no Websites Please (2001, 2005) at The Center For Visual Arts and Culture, University of Connecticut and Modeling the Photographic: The Ends of Photography (2006) for the McDonough Museum of Art located in Youngstown, Ohio. Both of these exhibitions examined the impact of digital technologies on current art practice and included internationally recognized artists: James Welling, Barbara Probst, Fabian Marcaccio, Joseph Nechvatal, Curtis Mitchell, Matthew Buckingham and Penelope Umbrico.^[1][2]

Saul Ostrow is the editor of the book series Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture published by Routledge London and is the Art Editor for Bomb Magazine. He was Co-Editor of Lusitania Press from 1996 to 1204.)^[3]

In a 2011 interview with Brian Sherwin for FineArtViews, Ostrow declared that art criticism is important because it helps to establish the concept of the "collective self". Ostrow suggested that criticism is important because it helps to address the "contradictions and dichotomies inherent in our social and cultural lives". In the interview Ostrow shared his experience as Art Editor for Bomb Magazine and his insight into the "changing landscape" of art criticism due to the advent of the Internet and art blogs. When asked about sexism, ageism, and racism within the contemporary art world Ostrow suggested that all three exist because all three exist in larger society.^[4]

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