New Museum taps Italian curator Gioni as director after $82m expansion
Massimiliano Gioni, the Italian curator who oversaw the New Museum’s $82m expansion designed by European firm OMA, will take over as director, extending transatlantic ties at a major New York institution.
The New Museum has named Massimiliano Gioni as its new director, elevating the Italian curator from his role as artistic director. He will assume the position on 1 August, succeeding Lisa Phillips, who retired last year after leading the institution since 1999.
Gioni’s promotion comes as the museum completes a major physical and financial transformation. He curated "New Humans: Memories of the Future", the inaugural exhibition for the institution's $82m expansion. The project, designed by the Rotterdam-based firm OMA and its partner Shohei Shigematsu, added 60,000 sq. ft to the site, doubling the museum's total footprint to 120,000 sq. ft.
For European audiences, Gioni represents a familiar figure in the transatlantic art world. Before his 18-year tenure at the New York institution, he co-founded an early Italian digital art magazine, Trax, and later became the US editor of Flash Art. He has maintained deep ties with international institutions, organizing shows for the Deste Foundation in Athens, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan, Qatar Museums in Doha, Museo Jumex in Mexico City, and the Long Museum in Shanghai.
His international reputation was largely built in Europe. In 2013, he became the youngest curator ever of the 55th Venice Biennale. His earlier European curatorial credits include the 8th Gwangju Biennale in 2010, the 4th Berlin Biennale in 2006, co-curated with artist Maurizio Cattelan and Ali Subotnick, and Manifesta in 2004, co-curated with Marta Kuzma.
In New York, Gioni has overseen major solo exhibitions for artists such as John Akomfrah, Tacita Dean, Urs Fischer and Pipilotti Rist. He also helped establish the New Museum Triennial in 2009 and orchestrated the 2021 landmark exhibition "Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America", conceived by the late Okwui Enwezor.
Gioni emphasized that despite the massive capital investment, the institution will retain a lean operational model. "Even after the expansion, we are still a purposefully scaled institution: nimble, efficient, flexible. This means that at the New Museum, we can move fast and work closely across teams and departments, and remain close to art and artists even when leading the institution," he said. Citing the late curator Harald Szeemann, Gioni noted that a curator-director ensures a grasp of the institution "from vision to nail."
James-Keith Brown, the museum’s board president, said the appointment followed an "extensive international search" lasting nearly a year, calling Gioni a "visionary curator" who will "make an exemplary director." Gioni framed his appointment as a continuation of the museum's founding tradition, noting that predecessors Phillips and founder Marcia Tucker were also curators. "Having a curator as director allows a full understanding of the institution and its priorities, and keeps the institution close to its core mission, which ultimately is art, artists and their audiences,” he said.
