Minneapolis, MN, March 9, 2016—The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), one of the nation’s leading encyclopedic museums, today announced the appointment of Gabriel Ritter as the new curator of contemporary art. Ritter comes to Mia from the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) where he has been assistant curator of contemporary art. He will join Mia in May.

Kaywin Feldman, Mia’s Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Director and President, said: “Mia launched an expanded contemporary art program in 2008 with an ambitious series of exhibitions and programs. At the same time, the museum made significant additions to the permanent collection in this area. Gabriel’s energy and experience in curating internationally and nationally important contemporary art exhibitions make him a terrific fit for Mia, as does his experience in acting as a liaison between the artists, community organizations, and museums. We are particularly excited about his expertise in contemporary Japanese art, given our extraordinary holdings in the historic Japanese collection.”

Since May 2012, Ritter has been The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the DMA, where he has curated numerous exhibitions and projects, including the long-running “Concentrations” series that focuses on internationally emerging and underrepresented artists. As part of the series, Ritter has curated solo exhibitions with artists Stephen Lapthisophon (2013),Slavs and Tatars (2014), Chosil Kil (2015), Margaret Lee (2016) and the group show “Concentrations 59: Mirror Stage—Visualizing the Self After the Internet” (2015), which featured video work by Ed Atkins, Trisha Baga, Antoine Catala, Aleksandra Domanović, Jon Rafman, Jacolby Satterwhite, Hito Steyerl, and Ryan Trecartin.

Ritter served as the co-organizing curator for the DMA’s critically acclaimed exhibition “Between Action and the Unknown: The Art of Kazuo Shiraga and Sadamasa Motonaga” (2015), and edited the accompanying scholarly catalog. He also organized “Never Enough: Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art” (2014) and “DallasSITES: Charting Contemporary Art, 1963 to Present,” an exhibition which celebrated the history of North Texas’s bold and distinctive art scene, as well as the accompanying “DallasSITES: Available Space” installation (2013). Ritter also served as the site curator for the Dallas presentations of the nationally touring exhibitions “International Pop” (2015) and “Cindy Sherman” (2013). In addition, Ritter has acquired numerous works for the museum’s permanent collection, with an emphasis on photography, video, and installation. Recent acquisitions spearheaded by Ritter include the work of Darren Bader, Anne Collier, Sharon Hayes, Annette Kelm, Sadamasa Motonaga, Shinro Ohtake, Rachel Rose, Kazuo Shiraga, Hito Steyerl, Koki Tanaka, Mika Tajima, and Christopher Williams.

Prior to his appointment in Dallas, Ritter completed a Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, where he conducted his dissertation research on Japanese surrealism. Previously a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) for three years, Ritter organized “Out of the Ordinary: New Video from Japan and MOCA Focus: Karl Haendel,” the first solo museum exhibition and publication dedicated to the artist. Ritter is currently completing his Ph.D. in art history at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he received his M.A. in art history, and his B.A. in art history and Japanese.