DALLAS, TX.- Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, today announced that Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck has been named the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, overseeing the Museum’s exemplary contemporary art collection, programming, exhibitions, and scholarship. Brodbeck steps into her new position after serving for two years in the DMA’s Department of Contemporary Art as The Nancy and Tim Hanley Associate Curator, and previously as Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.

“Katherine’s leadership and contributions to the DMA have been exceptional, and it has been a true pleasure to collaborate with her in shaping the direction of contemporary art at the Museum,” said Arteaga. “As we continue to expand the vision for the DMA’s collection and programming across the institution—aiming to bring underrecognized narratives of art history to the forefront—Katherine’s insights, expertise, and outstanding leadership capabilities have already played a vital role, as has her experience organizing exhibitions and working with collections at major institutions across the United States. I look forward to continuing our work together to develop engaging exhibitions and programs, and to provide meaningful experiences with contemporary art for our audiences, drawing from the strength and breadth of the DMA’s incredible collection.”

As the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Brodbeck assumes official leadership of the department—continuing her work in overseeing the exhibitions, programming, publications, and acquisitions related to the Museum’s leading collection of contemporary art. Working in collaboration with Arteaga and other colleagues throughout the Museum, Brodbeck is also continuing to expand the scope of the department to reflect the DMA’s commitment to presenting an inclusive vision of the art historical canon. Among her key undertakings is to further develop the range of expertise within the department to reflect the Museum’s globally-minded approach to exhibitions, programming, collecting, and scholarship.

Since joining the DMA in 2017, Brodbeck has curated several exhibitions across the breadth of contemporary art, including the forthcoming exhibition Jonas Wood, the first major museum survey of works by the beloved American painter, opening at the DMA on March 24, 2019. She is currently at work on America Will Be!: Surveying the Contemporary Landscape, a focused exhibition of works primarily from the DMA’s collection of contemporary art, including 15 new acquisitions she oversaw for the DMA that take the American landscape as a point of departure. America Will Be! opens at the DMA on April 6, 2019.

Brodbeck also served as installation curator for the Dallas presentations of Gunther Förg: A Fragile Beauty (2018), the most comprehensive survey of Förg’s work to date, and Laura Owens (2018), the critically acclaimed mid-career survey of the American artist. She also curated the immensely popular presentation of Yayoi Kusama: All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2017) and co-curated Truth: 24 frames per second, the DMA’s first exhibition dedicated to time-based media. Additionally, she has organized the DMA’s exhibition series Concentrations, which spotlights emerging international artists and most recently featured the work of conceptual artist Runo Lagomarsino.

Brodbeck has made significant contributions to the DMA’s contemporary art holdings through the acquisition of dozens of works, including key pieces by Ed Clark, Gerhard Richter, Adriana Varejão, Horacio Zabala, Theaster Gates, Tony Lewis, Sanford Biggers, Shara Hughes, Robert Colescott, Tomás Saraceno, Thornton Dial, Wanda Koop, and Gabriel Orozco.

“I am honored to assume the role of the Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at my cherished home institution. Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to become immersed in our community and in our collection. We are privileged to enjoy tremendous support in building upon our already first-rate contemporary collection, addressing blind spots in art history while remaining at the cutting edge of recent developments in the field. Our position in an encyclopedic museum has allowed us to reach across geography, time, and media to better serve our audiences by questioning outdated hierarchies and providing holistic historic contexts. Through upcoming acquisitions, exhibitions, and programming, I look forward to furthering our commitment to demonstrating the transnational development of postwar art in relevant ways.”

Prior to joining the DMA, Brodbeck worked in curatorial departments at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She co-curated the first comprehensive US retrospective of the influential Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica in Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium (2016), co-organized by the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She also provided extensive exhibition research for Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition (The Frick Collection, 2011) and Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years (The Museum of Modern Art, 2007).

Brodbeck has been supported by a number of fellowships, and she has delivered scholarly papers and contributed to numerous publications in her field. She has also served as an adjunct instructor of art history at New York University and Hunter College.

Brodbeck earned her master’s and doctorate degrees in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is a magna cum laude graduate of New York University and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.