JOSH TONSFELDT
Ruba Katrib, who has assembled a strong run of exhibitions over the past five years as curator of SculptureCenter in Queens, is joining MoMA PS1 as curator, a move that takes her about four-tenths of a mile southwest down Jackson Avenue in Long Island City. (That’s an 8-minute walk, according to Google Maps.)
Katrib came to SculptureCenter from the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, where she was assistant curator before being named associate curator. Down in Florida she organized solo shows with Cory Arcangel and Claire Fontaine, and in Queens she’s done one-person outings with Cosima von Bonin, Anthea Hamilton, Sam Anderson, Jessi Reaves, and many more.
At SculptureCenter, Katrib (who has contributed to ARTnews) also put together wide-ranging, well-received group exhibitions like “A Disagreeable Object” (2012), “Better Homes” (2013), and “Puddle, pothole, portal,” the last a project with Camille Henrot that inaugurated the museum’s newly renovated and expanded home in 2014.
Peter Eleey, PS1’s chief curator, said in a statement that Katrib “seeks connections between the conditions of life and the thicket of ideas and conversations that shape contemporary art, with a generosity that encourages audiences to share in her thinking.”
“MoMA PS1 is undoubtedly one of the most influential contemporary art museums today,” Katrib said in a statement of her own, “and I look forward to continuing its legacy of working with artists at crucial points in their careers and introducing them to wider audiences.”
Katrib is a research advisor for the upcoming Carnegie International, which opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh next year, and next month will present solo exhibitions with Nicola L. and Kelly Akashi at SculptureCenter. She starts at PS1 on October 15.