Massimiliano Gioni Takes Helm at New Museum Following Leadership Transition

The New Museum has confirmed Massimiliano Gioni as its new director, elevating the longtime artistic director to the institution's highest post. Gioni, who joined the museum in 2006 initially as a curator, has held multiple senior positions including associate director and director of exhibitions before this appointment.

He succeeds Lisa Phillips, who announced her retirement in 2025 after spearheading the museum's growth since 1999. Phillips herself followed Marcia Tucker, the museum's founder who established the institution in 1977. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Gioni noted that both Phillips and Tucker began their careers as curators, suggesting continuity in the museum's curatorial DNA.

During his tenure at the New Museum, Gioni has organised significant solo presentations featuring artists such as John Akomfrah, Lynda Benglis, Judy Chicago, Tacita Dean, Nicole Eisenman, Urs Fischer, Theaster Gates, Carsten Höller, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kapwani Kiwanga, Raymond Pettibon, Faith Ringgold, Pipilotti Rist and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. His curatorial approach has consistently foregrounded emerging and established voices across diverse practices.

Among his thematic projects, Gioni oversaw 'New Humans: Memories of the Future', the inaugural exhibition for the museum's recent $82m expansion. Designed by OMA architects Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, the project added 60,000 square feet to the building, effectively doubling the museum's total footprint to 120,000 square feet.

Despite the physical growth, Gioni emphasised the institution's commitment to remaining agile. 'We are still a purposefully scaled institution: nimble, efficient, flexible,' he said, noting that this allows for rapid decision-making and close collaboration across departments. Drawing on Harald Szeemann's maxim of 'from vision to nail', Gioni suggested that having a curator lead the museum ensures alignment with its core mission of supporting art, artists and audiences.

Gioni's recent programming includes the 2021 group exhibition 'Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America', originally conceived by Okwui Enwezor. The exhibition examined mourning, loss and systemic violence against Black Americans through contemporary artistic responses. Earlier, in 2009, he co-organised the first New Museum Triennial, 'The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus', alongside Lauren Cornell and Laura Hoptman.

Internationally, Gioni has worked with institutions including the Deste Foundation in Athens, Qatar Museums in Doha, the Long Museum in Shanghai, Museo Jumex in Mexico City and the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan. His biennial experience includes serving as the youngest curator for the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, alongside work on the 8th Gwangju Biennale in 2010 and the 4th Berlin Biennale in 2006.

In the mid-1990s, Gioni co-founded Trax, one of Italy's first digital art and culture magazines, which featured contributions from Tracey Emin, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Kara Walker and David Foster Wallace. He later became US editor of Flash Art in 2003. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the artist Maurizio Cattelan famously enlisted Gioni to impersonate him at public events.

James-Keith Brown, the museum's board president, announced the appointment following an international search lasting nearly a year. Brown described Gioni as a 'visionary curator' who would prove an 'exemplary director', acknowledging his essential role in shaping the museum over the past two decades. Gioni officially begins his new role on 1 August.