Will Fenstermaker

Will Fenstermaker is a writer and cultural critic living in Los Angeles after a decade covering art in New York City. His essays on art, literature, culture and ideology are published by Artforum, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Dear Dave, Dissent, Family Style, Frieze, TheGuide.art, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Paris Review Daily and T Magazine, among other publications, and he has written for institutions such as AICA-USA, Independent Art Fair, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sotheby’s and The de Young Museum.

As the head of editorial at Sotheby’s he led auction coverage in the US and Europe, and as editor at The Met he launched the museum’s online magazine︎︎︎. He previously held editorial positions at Frieze, where he served as contributing writer and interim reviews editor, and The Brooklyn Rail, where he returned as a guest critic in March 2021 to edit a selection of essays on artists’ manifestos. Additionally he has appeared on the mastheads of Artspace, TheGuide.art, Public Books and elsewhere.

In 2023 Will was awarded an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant︎︎︎ for short-form criticism and was shortlisted for the International Awards for Art Criticism. Over the years he has served as a mentor in CUE’s Art Critic Mentorship Program, a visiting critic for several artist residencies—including The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and NARS Foundation in New York City—and a US board member of The International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA).

Will holds an MFA in art criticism and writing from New York’s School of Visual Arts and a BA in literature from The George Washington University in DC.

︎ Written Work
︎ Editorial Projects
︎ Rate Sheet

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