MAD appoints Alexandra Schwartz to important curatorial role
Effective immediately, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) has appointed Alexandra Schwartz as curator of Modern and Contemporary art, craft and design. Image courtesy of MAD
NEW YORK – The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) has appointed Alexandra Schwartz, PhD, to the position of curator of Modern and Contemporary art, craft and design, effective immediately. In this new curatorial role at MAD, Schwartz’s responsibilities will include leading the curation of exhibitions interpreting the museum’s growing permanent collection of more than 3,500 objects. She’ll join the curatorial department helmed by Elissa Auther, MAD’s deputy director of curatorial affairs and William and Mildred Lasdon chief curator.
Schwartz brings to MAD more than 20 years of experience as a curator and historian of 20th- and 21st-century art, design and visual culture. Prior to joining MAD, she was an independent curator, and currently is an adjunct professor at SUNY Fashion Institute of Technology. As a guest curator at MAD, Schwartz mounted Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art (2022). The critically acclaimed exhibition was the first global survey dedicated to the use of clothing as a medium of visual art. Through the work of 35 international contemporary artists, the exhibition and its accompanying catalog examined the creation of garments, sculpture, installation and performance art that transforms dress into a critical tool for exploring issues of subjectivity and identity.
Her exhibition credits also include: 52 Artists: A Feminist Milestone at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2022–23); Ed Ruscha: OKLA at Oklahoma Contemporary (2021); As in Nature: Helen Frankenthaler Paintings at The Clark Art Institute (2017); and Come as You Are: Art of the 1990s at the Montclair Art Museum and with a national tour (2015-16), all with scholarly catalogs. She is the author of Ed Ruscha’s Los Angeles (MIT Press, 2010) and the co-editor of Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, 2010).
Previously, Schwartz held curatorial positions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Montclair Art Museum, and teaching positions at Columbia University, Fordham University, the University of Michigan, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among other institutions.
Schwartz holds a PhD in the history of art from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University.
