Dallas, TX, March 9, 2016—The Dallas Museum of Art announced today that Gabriel Ritter, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, will be stepping down from his position this April to serve as the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). In his new role, Ritter will head Mia’s expanding Department of Contemporary Art.
“In his four years with the DMA, Gabe has made significant contributions to our curatorial program, helping expand the Museum’s contemporary art presence globally through acquisitions and exhibitions of international artists, and strengthen the Museum’s relationships with artists and organizations in the Dallas area,” said Walter Elcock, the DMA’s Interim Director. “We all love working with Gabe and will miss having him in Dallas. We wish him all the best with this exciting new opportunity to head Mia’s contemporary art department.”
“At the DMA, I have had the unique opportunity to introduce the works of emerging artists from both North Texas and around the world to the Dallas community and its visitors. The support of the Museum’s patrons and DMA staff in presenting groundbreaking contemporary art within an encyclopedic institution has been crucial to my growth as a curator. I am incredibly grateful for these experiences and opportunities at the DMA, which have readied me for the new responsibilities I will assume at Mia,” stated Ritter.
Since joining the DMA in May 2012 as The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Ritter has worked with Olivier Meslay, the DMA’s Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Gavin Delahunty, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, to curate numerous contemporary art exhibitions and projects. Ritter served as the co-organizing curator for the Museum’s critically acclaimed exhibition Between Action and the Unknown: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga (2015), the first comprehensive exhibition on the work of Japanese artists Shiraga and Motonaga in the United States. He served as organizing curator of Never Enough: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art (2014), DallasSITES: Charting Contemporary Art, 1963 to Present, an exhibition celebrating the history of North Texas’s bold and distinctive art scene, and the accompanying DallasSITES: Available Space installation (2013). Most recently, Ritter served as the curator for the Dallas presentation of the nationally touring exhibition International Pop (2015).
Additionally, over the past four years, Ritter has overseen the Museum’s longstanding Concentrations series of project-based solo exhibitions representing emerging and international artists. He served as organizing curator for Concentrations 56: Stephen Lapthisophon—coffee, seasonal fruit, root vegetables, and “Selected Poems” (2013), Concentrations 57: Slavs and Tatars (2014), Concentrations 58: Chosil Kil (2015), Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet (2015), and Concentrations HK: Margaret Lee (2016), the first overseas exhibition of the series, as well as organizing the upcoming exhibitions Concentrations 60: Lucie Stahl and Concentrations 61: Taro Izumi, both of which open this September.
Prior to his work at the DMA, Ritter served as an independent curator, organizing exhibitions of emerging artists from the United States, Europe, and Asia. Ritter served as a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) for three years (2004–2007), where he organized Out of the Ordinary: New Video from Japan and MOCA Focus: Karl Haendel, the first solo museum exhibition and publication dedicated to the artist.
Ritter recently completed a Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of Modern Art, where he researched Japanese surrealism of the 1930–40s. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in art history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he received his M.A. in Art History and his B.A. in Art History and Japanese.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses more than 23,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. In January 2013, the DMA returned to a free general admission policy and launched DMA Friends, a free program available to anyone who wishes to join, focused on active engagement with the Museum. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
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