Lydia Yee has been appointed the New Chief Curator at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Joining the over-a-century-old gallery and working closely with the Director Iwona Blazwick, Ms Yee will guide a broad programme of modern and contemporary art exhibitions, new artist commissions, presentations of rarely seen collections from around the world, focused displays from the Whitechapel Gallery’s historic archive, and an extensive programme of publications.
Forthcoming highlights for 2015 include: a landmark exhibition tracing a century of Abstract art from 1915 to today, major solo shows for artists Christopher Williams and Emily Jacir, and The London Open triennial exhibition showcasing art being made across the capital, and a whole lot more of monumental works. The gallery has half a million visitors a year.
New Chief Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery Lydia Yee
Lydia Yee was previously curator at the Barbican Art Gallery since 2007 where she oversaw numerous exhibitions and was responsible for collections such as the recent show Bauhaus: Art as Life (2013) and more than ten commissions for the Barbican’s Curve Gallery by artists including Cory Arcangel, John Bock, Ayse Erkmen, Geoffrey Farmer and Robert Ku Mirowski. She is also currently co-curating the British Art Show, opening in October.
Lydia Yee says, “I am very honoured to be joining the Whitechapel Gallery, which has long been a reference point for me as a curator. Its diverse and adventurous exhibitions of contemporary and modern art and critically engaging publications have been hugely influential. I look forward to working with artists, audiences, colleagues and stakeholders to build on this illustrious history and to further strengthen its international outlook.”
by Xenia Founta
Image Courtesy of the Whitechapel Gallery