Staff Profile

Gary Garrels, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture

Gary Garrels was appointed Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture in May 2008 and will assume his role in September of this year. Recognized internationally for his acclaimed exhibitions and expertise in modern and contemporary art, Garrels previously served as chief curator and deputy director of exhibitions and public programs at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. The senior curator's chair in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA is named for the late Elise S. Haas, a distinguished San Francisco collector and dedicated Museum trustee whose family foundation endowed the position.

Garrels joins curator Janet Bishop in the Department of Painting and Sculpture, along with assistant curators Apsara DiQuinzio, Alison Gass, and John Zarobell. As senior curator of painting and sculpture, Garrels will have primary responsibility for planning major exhibitions, instigating new scholarship, recommending acquisitions and guiding the collection, and engaging actively with artists, collectors, and curatorial colleagues around the world.

In his 26-year career, Garrels has held curatorial positions at many prominent institutions. During his tenure at the Hammer Museum as chief curator and deputy director of exhibitions and public programs (2007 to 2008) and senior curator (2005 to 2007) he organized Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists (2007) and Oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting with Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Mary Heilman, Amy Sillman, Charline von Heyl, and Christopher Woo (2008). He also led the formation of the Hammer Contemporary Collection, a new collection begun in 2005 that now consists of nearly one thousand works.

Prior to joining the Hammer, Garrels served as chief curator in the department of drawings and curator in the department of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2000 to 2005). Exhibitions he organized include the acclaimed Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings (2006), which traveled to San Francisco and Berlin; Drawing from the Modern, Part II, 1945–1975 (2005); and Roth Time: A Dieter Roth Retrospective (2004), which was awarded "Best U.S. Monographic Museum Show" of the year by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). He was also a member of the curatorial committee for MoMA at El Museo: Latin American and Caribbean Art from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, exhibited at El Museo del Barrio (2004). During his tenure he transformed the museum's drawing collection, adding masterworks by such artists as Willem de Kooning, Ellsworth Kelly, and Jasper Johns, among others. He also significantly enhanced the collection of works by Latin American artists, and helped to form and secure a gift of more than 2,600 post-war era drawings from the Judith Rothschild Foundation.

Among Garrels's exhibitions during his previous tenure at SFMOMA as Elise S. Haas Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture (1993 to 2000), are Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective (2000); Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection (2000); Jasper Johns: New Paintings and Works on Paper (1999); Roy Lichtenstein: A Tribute (1999); Robert Rauschenberg (1999); Inside Out: New Chinese Art (1999); and Willem de Kooning: The Late Paintings, the 1980s (1995), with the Walker Art Center. As part of SFMOMA's New Work series, Garrels organized shows on artists Glenn Ligon, Doris Salcedo, Kara Walker, and Andrea Zittel among others. Under Garrels's leadership, SFMOMA acquired important works by Eva Hesse, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, René Magritte, Brice Marden, Piet Mondrian, Bruce Nauman, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, Robert Ryman, and Andy Warhol.

While at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis where he was senior curator (1991 to 1993), Garrels's exhibitions included the highly acclaimed Photography in Contemporary German Art: 1960 to the Present (1992), which toured internationally; and Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Coco Fusco: The Year of the White Bear (1992). As director of programs at the Dia Art Foundation, New York (1987 to 1991), he organized solo exhibitions of the work of Joseph Beuys, John Chamberlain, Dan Graham, Jenny Holzer, Brice Marden, Maria Nordman, Robert Ryman, and Lawrence Weiner, among others. Previously Garrels held positions at Christie's, New York, and the Hayden Gallery (now the List Visual Arts Center) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Among Garrels' many professional activities, he is a board member of the Merce Cunningham Foundation, The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, and the advisory committee for Art21. Previous advisory committee engagements have included Documenta XI; the Public Art Fund, New York; Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies; the Emanuel Hoffman Foundation, Basel; the Asia Society, New York; and the Carnegie International (2004). He has also served as a juror for the American Academy in Rome and the Tate Gallery's prestigious Turner Prize.