COURTESY GALERIE THADDEUS ROPAC
Julia Peyton-Jones, the former director of London’s Serpentine Galleries, will join the staff of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, the blue-chip outfit with spaces in London, Paris, Paris Pantin, and Salzburg, Austria. She will begin there as senior global director in September.
Peyton-Jones left the Serpentine Galleries last year, after having worked at there since 1991, when she joined the museum as director. Over the course of her tenure there, she saw the Serpentine expand significantly and introduced its esteemed pavilion project, for which an architect is selected annually to design a structure nearby the museum.
“When she left the Serpentine I was about to start building my London team,” Thaddaeus Ropac said by phone from Paris. Ropac recently opened a space in the city’s Mayfair district. “She was top of my list. At the time, she wanted to take a sabbatical to think about what her next move would be. We started to talk, and had a few meetings,” and things proceeded from there.
At Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Peyton-Jones will oversee the space’s creative development and work closely with the gallery’s artists, which include Cory Arcangel, Alex Katz, Bjarne Melgaard, and David Salle, as well as the estates of Harun Farocki and Sturtevant, among others. She will continue to be based in London.
In a statement, Peyton-Jones said, “For over 30 years, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has showcased the careers of some of the most brilliant and influential artists. I look forward to building on this impressive exhibition history, with Thaddaeus and his team, as the gallery extends its ambition and international presence. I simply cannot wait to get started!”
Sarah Douglas contributed reporting.