Kate Fowle Appointed Director of MoMA PS1

Kate Fowle has been appointed Director of MoMA PS1, it was announced today by Agnes Gund, Chairman of the Board of MoMA PS1, and Glenn D. Lowry, The David Rockefeller Director of The Museum of Modern Art. Ms. Fowle, until recently the Chief Curator at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, and currently director-at- large at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York, succeeds Klaus Biesenbach, who departed MoMA PS1 in October 2018 to lead The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Ms. Fowle will assume her new role as Director of MoMA PS1 on September 3. Founded in Long Island City, Queens, in 1976 as the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, MoMA PS1 was the first nonprofit arts center in the United States devoted solely to contemporary art, and its merger in 2000 with The Museum of Modern Art created the largest platform for contemporary art in the country and one of the largest in the world.

Kate Fowle. Photo: James Hill

“Kate is the perfect person to direct this vibrant institution and continue MoMA PS1's role as one of the world’s leading contemporary art museums,” said Mrs. Gund.

“Kate is a highly respected curator with a global vision and an impressive track record of success in leading major international contemporary arts organizations," said Mr. Lowry. "Her extraordinary relationships with artists, commitment to scholarship and public programs, and deep connections to New York will be important to helping MoMA PS1 continue to realize its ambitious program.”

“It’s an honor to take the helm of MoMA PS1 at this juncture in its rich history,” said Ms. Fowle. “I look forward to working with the team and board to create a generative environment where our outlook is transformed through artists and their perspectives on the world.”

Ms. Fowle joined Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, in 2013 as its first Chief Curator. During her tenure, she oversaw the institution’s transition from art center to an internationally recognized, public-facing museum. She led the efforts to establish new infrastructure and strategies for developing departments of exhibitions, archives, education, public programs, performance, publishing, research, development, and communications. Ms. Fowle also worked closely with Rem Koolhaas and OMA to oversee the design and opening of Garage’s first 56,000-square-foot Museum building in 2015.

Ms. Fowle’s curatorial projects at Garage include exhibitions and commissions with David Adjaye, John Baldessari, Sammy Baloji, Louise Bourgeois, Marcel Broodthaers, Olga Chernysheva, Urs Fischer, Rashid Johnson, Irina Korina, Robert Longo, Andrei Monastyrsky, Anri Sala, Taryn Simon, Juergen Teller, and Rirkrit Tiravanija, among others. In 2014 she established Field Research, the first research-oriented program in Russia for artists, and in 2017 she established Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art.

Her recent writing includes catalogue texts on Rasheed Araeen, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Taryn Simon, Ari Marcopoulos, Sterling Ruby, Althea Thauberger, and Qiu Zhijie. She has authored three books—Proof: Francisco Goya, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Longo (2016); Exhibit Russia: The New International Decade 1986–1996 (2016); and Rashid Johnson: Within Our Gates, (2016)— and established a number of publications series including “Perspectives on Curating,” featuring Terry Smith (2012/15) and Zdenka Badovinac (2019), and the “Artists Sourcebook” featuring Martha Wilson (2011), Allen Ruppersberg (2014), and Apichatpong Weerawesethakul (2016). Ms. Fowle’s texts on curating and exhibition practices have been published by numerous publications and magazines.

From 2009 to 2013, Ms. Fowle was the executive director of ICI. She led the organization, which was established in 1975, out of deficit and transformed the organization into the largest global network for curators. She also founded ICI’s signature program, the Curatorial Intensive, the first itinerant short-term international professional training program for curators.

Previously, Ms. Fowle was the inaugural international curator at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (2007–2008) and chair of the Master’s Program in Curatorial Practice at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, which she co-founded in 2002. Before moving to the United States, Fowle was co-director of Smith + Fowle in London. From 1994 to 1996 she was curator at the Towner Art Gallery and Museum in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Born in the U.K, Ms. Fowle trained as an artist before undertaking a Traineeship in curating and exhibitions through the Arts Council of England.