SculptureCenter Appoints Sohrab Mohebbi as Director
Long Island City, NY – SculptureCenter is pleased to announce the appointment of Sohrab Mohebbi to the position of Director. Mohebbi joins SculptureCenter from the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA, where he serves as the Kathe and Jim Patrinos Curator of the 58th Carnegie International, opening in September 2022. Mohebbi has also served as SculptureCenter’s Curator-at-Large since 2020, and as Curator between 2018 and 2020. Mohebbi will continue his work on the Carnegie International through September 2022 while beginning his new role at SculptureCenter in March 2022.
As Director, Mohebbi will oversee institutional strategy and the development of exhibitions, public programs, and events that will assert and strengthen SculptureCenter’s position as one of the leading contemporary art institutions in the United States and internationally. Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter has remained an artist-centric institution dedicated to commissioning new work. With his curatorial background, Mohebbi brings deep relationships with artists, institutional vision, and a keen ability to identify emerging currents in artistic discourse to the position.
SculptureCenter Board Chair Carol Bove said, “We look forward to working with Sohrab to achieve a dynamic vision for SculptureCenter that we saw emerging in his curatorial work with our institution. He brings an energy, perspective, and deep understanding of global cultural movements from his extensive collegial relationships with artists and institutions worldwide. Mohebbi is uniquely qualified to lead us into an exciting new phase as we deliver on our mission to lead the conversation on contemporary art.”
She continued, “The Board of Trustees thanks and acknowledges the hardworking and dedicated staff of SculptureCenter, all of whom have been instrumental in guiding the organization through a successful leadership transition and the simultaneous urgencies of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mohebbi said, “In the past few years, we have all been trying to reassess what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. At SculptureCenter we have a chance to experiment with and learn from these new institutional discourses and possibilities to better serve our constituents and our living environment. As many aspects of human life, culture, and politics evaporate into the cloud, SculptureCenter’s mission enables us to see how art reframes our relationship with matter, emergent objects, and forms.”
At SculptureCenter, Mohebbi organized landmark institutional solo exhibitions by Diane Severin Nguyen (2021), Rindon Johnson (2021), Tishan Hsu (2020), Rafael Domenech (2020), Fiona Connor (2020), and Banu Cennetoğlu (2019), in addition to the group exhibition Searching the Sky for Rain (2019). Before joining SculptureCenter, he was Associate Curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles and Curatorial Fellow at the Queens Museum. He is an advisor at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and has organized exhibitions and programs for the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, CA; SALT, Istanbul; and the Center for Historical Reenactments, Johannesburg, South Africa. Mohebbi is the recipient of a Warhol Foundation Curatorial Research Grant and The Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award (for Hotel Theory, REDCAT, 2013), and is a graduate of the Creative Capital Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Program (2012). He received an M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a BFA in photography from Tehran Art University. Mohebbi is a contributing editor to Bidoun magazine.
Kyle Dancewicz, who has acted as SculptureCenter’s Interim Director since September 2020, will serve as Deputy Director under Mohebbi.
Mohebbi said, “I am fortunate that Kyle Dancewicz has accepted my invitation to take on a new role in the institution as Deputy Director. Together we will reconfigure our curatorial modules and extend the reach and impact of SculptureCenter’s highly regarded exhibitions, expand our public programming and institutional collaborations, and rethink the potentialities of our unique space, which allows for artistic experiments that are not possible in traditional white cube and gallery spaces.”
Dancewicz was previously Director of Exhibitions and Programs and has worked closely with Mohebbi since 2018. He is the curator of solo exhibitions and projects with Liz Larner (2020), Jesse Wine (2020), ektor garcia (2019), and Matt Keegan (2019); the group exhibition Niloufar Emamifar, SoiL Thornton, and an Oral History of Knobkerry (2021); and a forthcoming solo exhibition with Lydia Ourahmane (2022). He began working at SculptureCenter in 2016.
Mohebbi continued, “I am honored that the Board of Trustees has granted me the opportunity to lead one of the oldest running art institutions in New York as we approach SculptureCenter’s 100th year of activity.”
About SculptureCenter
SculptureCenter leads the conversation on contemporary art by supporting artistic innovation and independent thought highlighting sculpture’s specific potential to change the way we engage with the world. Positioning artists’ work in larger cultural, historical, and aesthetic contexts, SculptureCenter discerns and interprets emerging ideas. Founded by artists in 1928, SculptureCenter provides an international forum that connects artists and audiences by presenting exhibitions, commissioning new work, and generating scholarship.
Since relocating to Long Island City in 2001, SculptureCenter has presented works by over nine hundred artists through its annual exhibition program, and today, it is considered one of New York’s most important kunsthalles. Placing emphasis on investment, inclusiveness, independence, transparency, and rigor, SculptureCenter has developed a strong reputation for championing underrecognized and emerging artists, many of whom have gone on to celebrated and substantial careers; these include Nairy Baghramian, Sanford Biggers, Tom Burr, Liz Glynn, Rochelle Goldberg, Leslie Hewitt, Tishan Hsu, Rashid Johnson, Rindon Johnson, Ugo Rondinone, Gedi Sibony, Alexandre Singh, Monika Sosnowska, Mika Tajima, Jesse Wine, Turner Prize winner Charlotte Prodger and nominee Anthea Hamilton, and Hugo Boss Prize winners Anicka Yi and Simone Leigh. SculptureCenter continuously offers a dynamic series of free public programs and events including artist talks, performances, film screenings, and publications.
Leadership support of SculptureCenter’s exhibitions and programs is provided by Carol Bove, Jill and Peter Kraus, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Lee Elliott and Robert K. Elliott, Eleanor Heyman Propp, Jacques Louis Vidal, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Robert Soros and Jamie Singer Soros, and Jane Hait and Justin Beal.
SculptureCenter’s annual operating support is provided by the Elaine Graham Weitzen Foundation for Fine Arts; the Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation; the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation; A. Woodner Fund; Libby and Adrian Ellis; The Willem de Kooning Foundation; Teiger Foundation; Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; Cy Twombly Foundation; Arison Arts Foundation; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and contributions from our Board of Trustees, Director’s Circle, SC Ambassadors, and many generous individuals and friends.
*Photo Captation: Sohrab Mohebbi. Photo: Sabrina Santiago.
*Source: SculptureCenter Press Release, 02-15-2022
