Grazer Kunstverein has appointed Irish curator Kate Strain as its new artistic director.

Arduously selected by a jury from a pool of 111 applicants from home and abroad, Strain will take on the position on September 1.

Born in Dublin in 1983, Strain has been working over the past decade as an independent curator, building up a solid body of work with a particular focus on exploring the intersection between performance and performativity in contemporary art.

Her portfolio includes work across a range of organisations, including the multi-disciplinary Project Arts Centre in Dublin and Cow House Studios, a rural art space in Wexford.

She is currently involved in The Centre For Dying On Stage, a research platform and commissioning body for art prompted by the notion of death and the stage. On that same topic, she has recently co-founded the first Department of Ultimology—which studies the dead and dying—in collaboration with artist Fiona Hallinan at Trinity College Dublin.

Strain was a participant of the Young Curators Residency Program at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2015), and de Appel Curatorial Program, Amsterdam (2013/14).

Over the past four years, under the direction of Krist Gruijthuijsen, who was recently appointed as the new director and chief curator of Berlin’s KW Institute for Contemporary Art, the Kunstverein in Graz, Austria, has evolved into an exceptional institution, where experimental, complex, and future-oriented programming has garnered national and international acclaim.

“The jury is convinced that Kate Strain’s in-depth knowledge and overwhelming energy will positively contribute to the institution’s legacy,” said a statement from Grazer Kunstverein posted on the institution’s Facebook page.