Dear Colleagues

I am thrilled to announce that Xiaoyu Weng has been appointed Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art. She is currently The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Xiaoyu will begin her role at the AGO this summer pending approval of authorization to work in Canada. 

Xiaoyu was born and raised in Shanghai, and holds an MA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and a BA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Her curatorial practice has focused on the impact of identity, globalization and decolonialization, as well as the intersection of art and technology.

During her time at the Guggenheim, Xiaoyu spearheaded The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. In 2018-19, she served as the Curator of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, transforming a former military factory and an abandoned theater into dynamic contemporary art spaces. She also recently curated the shows Miriam Cahn and Claudia Martínez Garay: Ten Thousand Things at Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China; Neither Black / Red / Yellow Nor Woman at Times Art Center Berlin, Germany; Soft Crash at Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy.

Before joining the Guggenheim, Xiaoyu was Director of Asia Programs at the Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco and Paris, where she organized a number of exhibitions and programs. Currently, she is organizing the upcoming exhibition Christian Nyampeta: Sometimes It Was Beautiful (2021). In addition to her curatorial work, she is an active writer, editor and educator, writing extensively on contemporary art for various periodicals. 

In her new position at the AGO, Xiaoyu will lead the Modern and Contemporary team in creating exceptional art experiences to welcome and grow diverse local and global audiences and envision new ways to collaborate and grow the AGO Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art.

Please join me in congratulating Xiaoyu on her new role as Carol and Morton Rapp Curator, Modern & Contemporary Art. We look forward to seeing her at the Gallery this summer.

Sincerely,

Julian

Julian Cox Deputy Director & Chief Curator

Volunteers – More with Xiaoyu in this artnews profile, linked here.