Conversation: Virginia Overton with Courtney J. Martin, director, Yale Center for British Art

Courtney J. Martin became the Paul Mellon director of the Yale Center for British Art in 2019, a decade after earning a PhD in art history from Yale University. An art historian, curator, and professor, Martin began working with the New York–based Dia Art Foundation in 2015 and was appointed deputy director and chief curator in 2017.  She previously taught at Brown University and at the Ford Foundation. 

Virginia Overton earned her BFA and MFA from the University of Memphis. Since moving to New York in the early 2000s, she has had solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Bern, Storm King Art Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2018, she became the first woman to have a solo exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park. This year, she has opened a solo exhibition at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London, installed a permanent site-specific installation at LaGuardia Airport in New York, and is included in the Biennale Arte 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani, in Venice, Italy.