The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles once again has a chief curator.
The museum announced this evening that it has tapped Helen Molesworth, who has been chief curator at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art since 2010, for the position, which had been vacant since Paul Schimmel was pushed out almost two full years ago. She will start Sept. 1.
It’s a marquee hire for newly minted director Philippe Vergne, who started at MOCA in March and has set out to build up the museum’s endowment and fill out its curatorial staff.
At the ICA Ms. Molesworth organized the widely praised show “This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s” and one-person exhibitions with artists like Amy Sillman and Catherine Opie, who is a member of MOCA’s board. She has also done shows throughout her career with Zoe Leonard, Louise Lawler, Kerry James Marshall and many others.
Before she joined the ICA, Ms. Molesworth was head of the department of modern and contemporary art and curator of contemporary art at the Harvard Art Museum and chief curator of exhibitions at Columbus, Ohio’s Wexner Center for the Arts.
“She curates transversally; meaning that she does not follow beaten, fashionable paths but knows how to open new roads, diverse roads with integrity and rigor,” Mr. Vergne said in a statement. “She is a marvelous scholar and writer and knows how to listen, work and dialogue with artists.”
If you haven’t yet read Ms. Moleworth’s trenchant review of this year’s Whitney Biennial in Artforum, why not do so now? People are talking about it!
