Aaron Betsky is an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, critic, curator, educator, lecturer, and writer on architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 and design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

, who since August 2006 has been the director of the Cincinnati Art Museum

Cincinnati Art Museum

The Cincinnati Art Museum is one of the oldest art museums in the United States. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies. Its collection of over 60,000 works make it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Midwest.Museum founders debated locating...

. From 2001 to 2006 Betsky served as director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute

Netherlands Architecture Institute

The Netherlands Architecture Institute is a Dutch architecture institute in Rotterdam. The NAi owns one of the world’s largest architectural collections, has a library with over 30,000 books and a museum with 3 exhibition galleries...

 in Rotterdam

Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...

, Netherlands. Although Betsky was born in Missoula, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, USA, he grew up in The Netherlands. He graduated from Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 with a B.A. in History, the Arts and Letters (1979) and a M.Arch. (1983). He then taught at the University of Cincinnati

University of Cincinnati

The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....

 from 1983 to 1985 and worked as a designer for Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry

Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...

 and Hodgetts & Fung. From 1995-2001 Betsky was Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before moving back to The Netherlands.

Betsky has written numerous monographs on the work of late 20th century architects, including I.M. Pei, UN Studio

UN Studio

UNStudio is a Dutch architectural practice specializing in architecture, urban development and "infrastructural" projects. The practice was founded in 1988 by Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos...

, Koning Eizenberg Architecture, Inc., Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid

Zaha Hadid, CBE is an Iraqi-British architect.-Life and career:Hadid was born in 1950 in Baghdad, Iraq. She received a degree in mathematics from the American University of Beirut before moving to study at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.After graduating she worked...

 and MVRDV

MVRDV

MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1991. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas , Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries...

, as well as treatises on aesthetics

Aesthetics

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

, psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

 and human sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 as they pertain to aspects of architecture, and is one of the main contributors to a spatial interpretation of Queer theory

Queer theory

Queer theory is a field of critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of the fields of LGBT studies and feminist studies. Queer theory includes both queer readings of texts and the theorisation of 'queerness' itself...

.

Betsky was named as the director of the 11th Exhibition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture

Venice Biennale of architecture

Mostra di Architettura di Venezia, the Architecture section of the Venice Biennale, was established in 1980, although architecture had been a part of the art biennale since 1968....

 in 2008. http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/director/en/78653.html

Publications

• A. Betsky, A. Euwens (2004) False Flat: Why Dutch design is so good, Phaidon Press Inc.
• W. Maas, A. Betsky, S. Kwinter, B. Lootsma, A. Ruby (2003) Reading MVRDV, Nai Publishers
• A. Betsky, K. M. Hays, G. M. Anderson (2003) Scanning: The Aberrant Architectures of Diller + Scofidio, Whitney Museum of American Art
• A. Betsky (2002) Landscrapers: building with the land, Thames and Hudson
• B. van Berkel, A. Betsky, C. Bos, M. Wigley (2002) UN Studio: UNFOLD, Nai Publishers
• A. Betsky, E. Adigard (2000) Architecture Must Burn: a manifesto for an architecture beyond building, Thames and Hudson
• R. Moore, J. Herzog, A. Betsky, P. Davies (1999) Vertigo: The Strange New World of the Contemporary City, Gingko Press
• A. Betsky, O. R. Ojeda (1999) Miller Hull Partnership, Rockport Publishers
• T. González de León, A. Betsky, A. Leon (1998) Kalach & Alvarez, Rockport Publishers
• A. Betsky, A. Suzuki, D. Jackson, P. Zellner (1998) Pacific Edge: Contemporary Architecture on the Pacific Rim, Rizzoli
• T. Riley, A. Betsky, X. Costa, M. Robbins (1998) Fabrications, Actar
• A. Betsky (1998) Zaha Hadid: Das Gesamtwerk, DVA
• Z. M. Hadid, A. Betsky (1998) Zaha Hadid: The Complete Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli
• A. Betsky (1997) Queer space : architecture and same-sex desire, William Morrow
• A. Jarmusch, A. Betsky, R. W. Quigley, M. S. Larson, M. Benedikt, M. Les Benedict (1996) Rob Wellington Quigley: Buildings and Projects, Rizzoli
• A. Betsky (1995) Building sex : men, women, architecture, and the construction of sexuality, William Morrow
• A. Betsky (1994) James Gamble Rogers and the Architecture of Pragmatism
• A. Betsky (1992) Architecture & medicine : I.M. Pei designs the Kirklin Clinic
  Kirklin Clinic
  The Kirklin Clinic is an outpatient facility of UAB Hospital. It was named for heart surgeon, John W. Kirklin, and was designed by noted architect, I. M. Pei.-Further reading:-External links:...
  
  , University Press of America
• A. Betsky, J. Chase, L. Whiteson (1991) Experimental Architecture in Los Angeles, Rizzoli
• A. Betsky (1990) Violated perfection : architecture and the fragmentation of the modern, Rizzoli
• A. Betsky (1989) Being bet : released his first book about betness, Rizolli