STOCKHOLM.- Magnus af Petersens has been appointed the new Director of Bonniers Konsthall, replacing Sara Arrhenius, who has held the position since the Konsthall first opened in 2006, and this spring becomes Vice Chancellor of the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. Magnus af Petersens officially assumes the role on 1 April 2017.

af Petersens most recently held the position of Head of Exhibitions and Collections at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Before this, he served as Chief Curator of Whitechapel Gallery, London, in addition to curating The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011.

‘Bonniers Konsthall is primarily an establishment for contemporary art, where artists are provided with the incredible opportunity to produce new works. Very few institutions have the same capacity to react quite as quickly and place international art in a national context. This is what sets Bonniers Konsthall apart from the rest. It will be fantastically fun to work with the Bonniers Konsthall team,” says Magnus af Petersens.

Bonniers Konsthall was established by the Maria Bonnier Dahlin Foundation, which Jeanette Bonnier founded in 1985 in memory of her daughter Maria. Bonniers Konsthall has since served as home of the foundation’s annual grant.

Pontus Bonnier, Chair of the Board of Bonniers Konsthall, along with the entire board, reached a unanimous decision to elect af Petersens in this role.

‘We are delighted to entrust Magnus af Petersens with the role of further developing Bonniers Konsthall. With an international network, extensive relationships with artists and the public, and a wealth of experience managing exhibitions and creating museum programs, we feel he is well qualified. Above all, we believe that the combination of Magnus’ experience of and passion for contemporary art will infuse Bonniers Konsthall with an exciting energy and vitality.’

Magnus af Petersens currently holds the role of Head of Exhibitions and Collections at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and Curator at Large at Whitechapel Gallery, London, where he recently held the position of Chief Curator.

At Whitechapel Gallery, af Petersens was responsible for curating a separate exhibition with Richard Tuttle and Chris Marker (co-curated with Christine van Assche and Chris Darke), in addition to a site-specific commission with Kader Attia, and the group exhibition Adventures of the Black Square. Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, (co-curated with Iwona Blazwick).

In 2011, af Petersens served as the curator of The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He also curated Future Histories with Arseny Zhilyaev and Mark Dion at Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice, which ran alongside the 2015 Biennale.

Af Petersens previously worked as a curator of modern art at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, from 2002. During this period, he curated large-scale exhibitions, including Paul McCarthy’s Head Shop/Shop Head (2006), the group exhibition Eclipse: Art in a Dark Age (2008), and Explosion: Painting as Action (with works from 1947 to the present, including Yves Klein, Yoko Ono, Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg).

Prior to this, af Petersens worked as a curator at Färgfabriken and The Swedish Exhibition Agency, chairman of the Stockholm photography festival Xposeptember, and editor of Hjärnstorm, a journal of art, literature, philosophy and cultural debate.