Weekly Shuffle: Promotions at the New Museum, NEA, and Christie’s

Massimiliano Gioni has a new title and layoffs hit Sotheby's.

Portrait of Massimiliano Gioni 2015 Absolut Art Award Jury President Photo: Marco De Scalzi Courtesy: Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan

Massimiliano Gioni has been promoted from curator to artistic director at New York’s New Museum, reports Gallerist.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has hired Iria Candela and Beatrice Galilee to two newly endowed curator positions. Candela, previously the curator of international art at London’s Tate Modern, will be the Estrellita B. Brodsky curator of Latin American art, while Galilee, who curated the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, has been named the Daniel Brodsky associate curator of architecture and design. The Met also sees a departure, as Vanja Malloy, a fellow in the modern and contemporary art department, moves to the Mead Art Museum at Massachusetts’s Amherst College, as announced on Artdaily.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has hired Martino Stierli, the Institute of Art History of the University of Zurich‘s Swiss National Science Foundation Professor, as its chief curator of architecture and design (see press release). Meanwhile, MoMA’s sister organization in Queens, MoMA PS1, is losing Christopher Lew, its assistant curator for over three years, to Manhattan’s Whitney Museum of American Art, where he will serve as an associate curator (see press release).

New York’s Guggenheim Museum is losing longtime director of media and public relations Betsy Ennis, who is joining Hyphen, the new consulting company from Andrea Glimcher (formerly of Pace Gallery), reports Gallerist.

Nathaniel Prottas, a 2013–14 Samuel H. Kress Interpretive Fellow at the Frick Collection in New York, has joined the Museum of Biblical Art (MoBiA) as its director of education (see MoBiA website).

As reported by artnet News, Sotheby’s is in the process of laying off staff members and restructuring some departments, although the auction house has yet to reveal the names of the affected employees or departments.

Erik H. Neil, the current director of the Academy Art Museum in Easton, Maryland, will succeed Bill Hennessey, who is retiring after 17 years on the job, as the director of the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, reports ARTFIX daily.

Alexie Glass-Kantor. Photo: Zan Wimberley.

Alexie Glass-Kantor.
Photo: Zan Wimberley.

As previously reported by artnet News, the upcoming edition of Encounters at Art Basel in Hong Kong will be curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, executive director of Sydney’s Artspace. She replaces Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator of Tokyo’s Museum of Contemporary Art and curator of the 2013 Sharjah Biennial.

The National Endowment of the Arts has promoted Wendy Clark from interim director, a post she has held for going on two years, to director of museums, visual arts, and indemnity.

The new senior curator of special projects at the National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, is Lynne Cooke, a professor at the NGA’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, reports the Washington Post.

Charmaine Jefferson, executive director of the California African American Museum, is resigning after 11 years in the role to focus her energies toward her arts consulting business, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The upcoming edition of Denver’s Biennial of the Americas will be curated by Lauren Wright, most recently a curator at Turner Contemporary in Margate, UK, reports ArtForum.

FIAC Los Angeles has tapped Aurélia Chabrillat, formerly the head of contemporary Asian art at Christie’s, to direct its inaugural edition, debuting in May 2015, reports Art Media Agency.

Bonham’s has named Honor Westmacott of Auctionata as its picture specialist for modern, contemporary and Impressionist art in Germany, as announced on Artdaily.

Yilmaz Dziewior, currently the director of Austria’s Kunsthaus Bregenz, will be the new director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne as of February 2015, reports Art in America.

Diego Candil will leave his post as director of the Musée des Impressionismes in Giverny, France, to become general secretary of the Centre Pompidou-Metz in Metz, France, (see artnet News report).

Director (and published poet) Stuart Krimko has left Los Angeles’s David Kordansky Gallery to pursue his writing career, as previously reported by artnet News. Mike Homer and Kurt Mueller now share director responsibilities.

Kimberly Bowes at the American Academy in Rome. Photo: courtesy the American Academy in Rome.

Kimberly Bowes at the American Academy in Rome. Photo: courtesy the American Academy in Rome.

The American Academy in Rome has appointed Kimberly Bowes, a classics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, as its new director, following the departure of Christopher S. Celenza (see press release).

Hugo Weihe has left Christie’s after 10 years heading the auction house’s Indian art department, which is now being folded into a new, larger world art department encompassing Islamic art, antiquities, and tribal art, reports the Telegraph. The world art department will be led by William Robinson from the company’s Islamic department.

The French association of antiques dealers has fired its president, Christian Deydier, as artnet News reported.

Following the retirement of Grant Holcomb, who has led the museum for 29 years, the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester has named Jonathan Binstock, a senior vice president and senior adviser for modern and contemporary art at Citi Private Bank’s Art Advisory and Finance group, as its new director (see press release).

As reported by the Star Tribune, the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis (TMORA) has hired Vladimir von Tsurikov of the Foundation of Russian History in Jordanville, New York, as its first Russian-speaking director, replacing Brad Shinkle—who is serving in his third nonconsecutive stint at the institution’s helm.

John Wilson has resigned after six years as executive director of the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego, reports the Times of San Diego.

The Portland Museum of Art has hired Jennifer DePrizio, the director of visitor learning at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, as its new director of learning and interpretation, as announced on Artdaily.

As reported by the Plaquemine Post South, the LSU Museum of Art at Louisiana State University has hired Katie Pfohl, most recently of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as its new curator.

Belinda Ann Tate is departing the Diggs Gallery at North Carolina’s Winston-Salem State University after 15 years as director to become the executive director of Michigan’s Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. She succeeds James Bridenstine, who is retiring following 24 years at the museum, as announced on Artdaily.

Jerusalem’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design has hired Nicola Trezzi, New York editor of Flash Art International, as the head of its MFA program, reports Art Media Agency.


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