A writer and curator based in New York, Bob Nickas has organized over 100 exhibitions since 1984.. He was Curatorial Advisor at P.S.1/MoMA in New York between 2004-07, where his exhibitions include Lee Lozano: Drawn From Life; William Gedney—Christopher Wool: Into the Night; Stephen Shore: American Surfaces; and Wolfgang Tillmans: Freedom From The Known. He served on the team for the 2003 Biennale de Lyon, Greater New York 2005 at MoMA/PS1, contributed a section to Aperto at the 1993 Venice Biennale, and collaborated with Cady Noland on her installation for Documenta IX in 1992. He was founding editor of Index magazine (1996-2000), with publisher Peter Halley.
His books include Painting Abstraction: New Elements In Abstract Painting, Catalog Of the Exhibition, and four collections of his writing and interviews: Theft Is Vision, Live Free or Die, The Dept. of Corrections, and Komplaint Dept. He is one of the authors of Defining Contemporary Art: 25 Years In 200 Pivotal Artworks, and of No Problem: Cologne/New York 1984-1989. Most recently he has contributed essays to Vija Celmins (Matthew Marks) and to Brand New: Art & Commodity in the 1980s (Hirschhorn Museum).
He is presently at work on a book about Ad Reinhardt’s photography.