(Boston, MA—June 29, 2022)—The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston announces the promotion of Eva Respini to Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs and Barbara Lee Chief Curator. Respini will lead the vision and strategy for the ICA’s exhibitions and collection, in alignment with the ICA’s mission to provide a wider and more global view of today’s most innovative artists and contemporary art practices. Respini joined the ICA as the Barbara Lee Chief Curator in 2015, after more than a decade as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art. Most recently, she was the curator and co-commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion’s historic Simone Leigh presentation for the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2022. Respini is currently organizing the first mid-career survey exhibition of Leigh’s work, which will open at the ICA in March 2023 before touring across the country.

“I am thrilled to announce Eva’s promotion to this expanded leadership position at the ICA,” said Jill Medvedow, Ellen Matilda Poss Director of the ICA. “With creativity, thoughtfulness, and dedication, Eva has developed exhibitions that have advanced our knowledge of contemporary art and artists, and been met with popular and critical acclaim. Hundreds of thousands of people—in Boston, New York, and Venice—are currently experiencing exhibitions developed by Eva and her team, expanding the impact of the ICA on a local, national, and global stage.”

Respini led the significant expansion of ICA’s exhibition program in 2018 with the opening of the ICA Watershed, the museum’s project space in East Boston where audiences encounter and experience large-scale and immersive artworks. In keeping with ICA’s history to champion the most innovative art and ideas of our time, her work has brought attention to under-recognized artists or little-explored themes and practices in the art world. Specializing in global contemporary art and image-making practices, Respini has organized the critically acclaimed exhibitions Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today (2018); When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art (2019); and ambitious solo presentations such as Deana Lawson (2021); Firelei Báez (2021); John Akomfrah: Purple (2019); Huma Bhabha: They Live (2019); William Forsythe: Choreographic Objects (2018); Liz Deschenes (2016); and Nalini Malani (2016). Her other notable exhibitions include a major retrospective of Cindy Sherman (2012), and the surveys Walid Raad (2015) and Robert Heinecken (2014). Respini’s curatorial leadership and commitment to curatorial craft at every level of exhibition-making is evident in all her curatorial projects. Respini has been a visiting lecturer, critic, and speaker at a number of universities and currently teaches a seminar on curatorial practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Other universities where she has taught and lectured include School of Visual Arts, Columbia University; Yale University’s School of Art; and the School of Visual Arts, New York. She has published numerous books and catalogues and her writing appears in museum publications and periodicals.

About the ICA/Boston 
Since its founding in 1936, the ICA has shared the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, imagination, and provocation that contemporary art offers with its audiences. A museum at the intersection of contemporary art and civic life, the ICA has advanced a bold vision for amplifying the artist’s voice and expanding the museum’s role as educator, incubator, and convener. Its exhibitions, performances, and educational programs provide access to the breadth and diversity of contemporary art, artists, and the creative process, inviting audiences of all ages and backgrounds to participate in the excitement of new art and ideas. The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, MA, 02210. For more information, call 617-478-3100 or visit our website at icaboston.org. Follow the ICA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.   

Media contact: Colette Randall, crandall@icaboston.org