A Harvard University Graduate School of Design lecturer will join the leadership team at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Eva Respini was most recently the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art Boston.
On August 1, she will begin her new job as deputy director and director of curatorial programs at the VAG.
“I am confident that she will build upon the Vancouver Art Gallery’s incredible history of curatorial innovation and exhibition-making, adding her own unique voice and experience to our work,” VAG CEO and director Anthony Keindl said in a news release.
“Her international outlook as a dual citizen of Norway and Italy, having lived in numerous countries including Croatia, France, Italy and Switzerland, will bring an international scope to the Gallery’s ambitious plans and help us to transform as we move to our new purpose-built facility expected to open in 2028.”
Respini’s father is Italian and her mother is Norwegian, and she has lived in Croatia (when it was part of Yugoslavia), France, Italy, and Switzerland. She was co-curator and co-commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion’s Simone Leigh presentation to the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.
Respini also writes books
She has curated exhibitions on topics ranging from art in the Internet age to migration, as well as a major retrospective on Cindy Sherman and surveys of Walid Raad and Robert Heinecken. In addition, she’s the author of books about these three artists as well as other topics.
“The Vancouver Art Gallery has a remarkable history, a vibrant present-day community and boundless potential,” Respini said in the VAG news release. “The Gallery’s new building presents an opportunity to create a truly different museum for the twenty-first century—one that attends to and welcomes the local community, has a global reach and purview, fearlessly foregrounds artists and learning for all and sets the bar for ecological sustainability.
“I can’t wait to work with the staff, Board and the Vancouver arts community to help launch the museum into its exciting next chapter.”
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