Artists Space Announces New Deputy Director, Museum Leader, Curator, Author, Gallerist Kelly Taxter

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Museum Leader, Curator, Author, and Gallerist Kelly Taxter Joins Artists Space as Deputy Director

New York, NY, [February 6, 2023] – Jay Sanders, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Artists Space, announced that Kelly Taxter is joining the organization as its Deputy Director and will take up her new responsibilities full time as of February 6. A noted museum leader, curator, author, and gallerist, she comes to Artists Space from The Jewish Museum, where her last exhibition with the institution, After the Wild: Contemporary Art from the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection, will open in March 2023.

“I could not be more excited to welcome Kelly Taxter to Artists Space,” Jay Sanders said. “Over the past two decades,
Kelly has contributed substantively to the art world in myriad ways. I know she will be a fantastic addition to our team in the important role of Deputy Director, providing vision and leadership that will be integral to our future.”

Eleanor Cayre, Co-President of the Board of Trustees of Artists Space, said, “Kelly Taxter is well known and admired in the community of innovative artists and thinkers we serve at Artists Space and is highly respected in the donor community that makes our work possible. The Board is thrilled that she will be helping to drive forward the many events and initiatives of our 50th anniversary year.”

Kelly Taxter said, “For 50 years, Artists Space has been an essential place for artists and thinkers to develop new art and new ideas; and in its still-new home at 11 Cortlandt Alley, it is as vital and forward-looking as ever. It was a formative institution for me personally, where in the mid-1990s, when I was still an art student, I regularly attended shows and lectures that made lasting impressions and helped shape my career. It’s an honor to join the team and communities of Artists Space as we create its next chapter.

Widely experienced in the world of contemporary art, Kelly Taxter served with distinction from 2013 to 2021 as the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art at the Jewish Museum, New York. For the Jewish Museum, she organized major surveys of the work of Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Rachel Feinstein, Jonas Mekas, and Isaac Mizrahi;
projects with Math Bass, Eliza Douglas, Eva LeWitt, Willem de Rooij, Laurie Simmons, Valeska Soares, and Vivian Suter; and co-curated group exhibitions including Take Me (I’m Yours) and Unorthodox. Prior to joining the Jewish Museum, she cofounded and ran  Taxter & Spengemann with Pascal Spengemann, a gallery where from 2003 through 2011 she represented artists including Lutz Bacher, Frank Benson, Xavier Cha, Adam Putnam, Kalup Linzy, Wardell Milan, and A.L. Steiner. She served as Director of the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York in 2021, and has also worked as an independent curator and is the author or editor of a dozen books and catalogues. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University (BFA) and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (MA), she is also a 2017 alumnus of the Getty Leadership Institute.

As Deputy Director of Artists Space, she will lead a comprehensive development program in partnership with the Executive Director and the Board, work with the Director to oversee the administrative management and operations, and participate in strategic planning during a transformative period for the institution.

Support for Artists Space

Artists Space programs are funded by Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, The Cy Twombly Foundation, The David Teiger Foundation, The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, Imperfect Family Foundation, Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Willem de Kooning Foundation, The Fox Aarons Foundation, Herman Goldman Foundation, The Destina Foundation, The Luce Foundation, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, The Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Arison Arts Foundation, The David Rockefeller Fund, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, The Jill and Peter Kraus Foundation, and The Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation.

About Artists Space

Founded in 1972 in downtown Manhattan, Artists Space fosters the artistic and cultural life of New York City as a primary venue for artists’ work in all forms. An affinity with emerging ideas and artists is central to our institution, as is an attentiveness to the social and intellectual concerns which actively inform artistic practice. We strive for exemplary conditions in which to produce, experience, and understand art, to be a locus of critical discourse and education, and to advocate for the capacity of artistic work to significantly define and reflect our understanding of ourselves.

Banner Image: Kelly Taxter. Image Credit – Jason Nocito.


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Artists Space

Founded in 1972 in downtown Manhattan, Artists Space fosters the artistic and cultural life of New York City as a primary venue for artists' work in all forms. An affinity with emerging ideas and artists is central to our institution, as is attentiveness to the social and intellectual concerns which actively inform artistic practice. We strive for exemplary conditions in which to produce, experience, and understand art, to be a locus of critical discourse and education, and to advocate for the capacity of artistic work to significantly define and reflect our understanding of ourselves.

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