Associate Conservator of Contemporary Art

Joanna Phillips joined the museum in 2008 and focuses on the conservation of time-based media artworks, which include video, film, audio, and computer-based works. At the Guggenheim, Phillips has launched a media art conservation lab and is developing and implementing new strategies for the preservation, reinstallation, and documentation of media artworks. She lectures and publishes on this topic internationally. Phillips has carried out the research, treatment, and documentation of numerous collection artworks, including works by Nam June Paik, William Kentridge, Marina Abramović, Tacita Dean, and Francis Alÿs. As a board member of the Electronic Media Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Phillips programmed and co-organized the conference TechFocus I: Caring for Video Art, held at the Guggenheim Museum in 2010.

Prior to her Guggenheim appointment, Phillips specialized in the conservation of contemporary art at the Swiss Institute for Art Research in Zürich and explored the challenges of media art conservation as a researcher in the Swiss project AktiveArchive. Phillips holds an MA in paintings conservation from the Hochschule für Bildenden Künste, Dresden, Germany.