The Newark, New Jersey based non-profit, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, has named Dexter Wimberly as its new executive director. Wimberly will begin from this week, to coincide with the October 15 opening of the center’s newest exhibition, “Zachary Fabri: From the Wolf to the Fox.”

Recommended Reading

Curator Resigns Unexpectedly From Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis After Controversial Show

By Lorena Muñoz-Alonso, Oct 11, 2016

Wimberly has a background in marketing and PR, having previously worked as Communications Director for the Museum for African Art in New York.

Recommended Reading

Is the Art Market Racially Biased?

By Brian Boucher, Oct 11, 2016

Wimberly has curated exhibitions at the Aljira before, and most recently held the position of Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International in New York. He has also co-founded a PR agency, August Bishop.

Zachary Fabri, Red Handed (detail) (2010). Photo credit: Gabriella Araujo, Courtesy Aljira Center for Contemporary Art.

Wimberly has a strong curatorial vision to promote “significant, yet underexposed artists” at Aljira, including some who have never been shown in the New York area before. “I admire the way in which Dexter serves artists and applies his entrepreneurial experience to the careers of artists,” said Victor L. Davson, the founding director of Aljira, in a statement from the institution.

Recommended Reading

Neil MacGregor, Former British Museum Director, Calls Britain’s Uncritical View of Its Past ‘Dangerous’

By Lorena Muñoz-Alonso, Oct 10, 2016

Wimberly’s curatorial highlights include the 2010 “The Gentrification of Brooklyn: The Pink Elephant Speaks” at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York as well as a group show, “The Ease of Fiction,” at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, which included works by Meleko Mokgosi and Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze.

“His knowledge and experience will certainly usher Aljira into a new tomorrow with insightful additions to Newark’s arts community and the region,” stated Davson with great optimism and encouragement for the new director.