New Director at IMA Brisbane
By The Editors
Portrait of ROBERT LEONARD. Courtesy Robert Leonard.
On January 9, the Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in Brisbane announced that the organization’s next director will be curator and writer Robert Leonard, who previously ran the IMA from 2005 to 2013.
Leonard was most recently the chief curator at City Gallery Wellington and edits the magazine Art News New Zealand. He has worked in curatorial positions at numerous museums in New Zealand since the mid-1980s including the Auckland Art Gallery, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, and the National Art Gallery (now Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa) in Wellington. He was also previously director of Artspace Aotearoa in Auckland in the late 1990s. He was the curator of the New Zealand Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and 2015; the 2002 Sao Paulo Biennial; and the 1999 Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.
IMA chair Rachel Crowley called Leonard’s previous tenure “one of the IMA’s most exciting and innovative periods.” Commenting on his return to the organization for a second stint, Leonard said he has “no intention of repeating [him]self.” He noted: “The discussion has changed, I’ve changed. I’m looking forward to seeing how I can contribute to this new moment.”
