About Jessica Morgan, Director of Dia Art Foundation
Jessica Morgan, Photo by Don Stahl
Jessica Morgan is the Director of Dia Art Foundation. Since joining Dia in January 2015, Morgan has helped advance Dia’s mission by presenting new programs and exhibitions such as, the Dream House by LaMonte Young, Marian Zazeela and Jung Hee Choi in New York City from June-October 2015; Puerto Rican Light by Allora & Calzadilla in Puerto Rico through September 2017; and a new exhibition of works by Robert Ryman through July 2016 in New York City. She also has organized collection reinstallations at Dia:Beacon of key artists such as Dan Flavin, Walter De Maria, Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra.
She previously served as Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art, at Tate Modern from 2010-2015 and as a curator at Tate from 2002-2010. Morgan also was the Artistic Director of the 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014).
At Tate, Morgan curated The World Goes Pop (2015). She also curated a number of important exhibitions including the retrospectives Saloua Raouda Choucair (2013), Gabriel Orozco (2011), John Baldessari: Pure Beauty (2009), and Martin Kippenberger (2006), as well as the group shows The World as a Stage (2007), Time Zones (2004) and Common Wealth (2003). Morgan also curated the Unilever Series commissions for the Turbine Hall by Tino Sehgal, These associations (2012); Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, TH.2058 (2008–09); and Carsten Höller, Test Site (2006–07). Additionally, she developed a series of solo exhibitions of international emerging artists including Meschac Gaba, Roman Ondàk, Catherine Sullivan, Simryn Gill, and Brian Jungen in 2005–06.
In addition to her work on exhibitions, Morgan played a key role in the growth of Tate’s collection, helping develop the museum’s holdings of mid-century and emerging art from North America, the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. During her tenure at Tate, she also worked on the development of the institution’s acquisition committees for the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia and worked extensively with the International Council.
Morgan was previously Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, where she organized exhibitions of work by, among others, Carsten Höller, Ellen Gallagher, Olafur Eliasson, Rineke Dijkstra, Marlene Dumas, Marijke van Warmerdam, Kerry James Marshall, and Cornelia Parker. Prior to her position at the ICA she was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, where she organized the first US and UK surveys of the work of Mona Hatoum.
She serves on the Board of Trustees of Chisenhale Gallery, London; Sammlung Verbund, Austria; and Saradar Foundation, Beirut. She is a nominator for the Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts Fellowship, and on the advisory committee for the Jumex Collection, Mexico. Morgan was President of the Jury of the Venice Biennale (2013). She has published and lectured extensively on contemporary art and her essays appear in numerous exhibition- and museum catalogues as well as international art journals such as Parkett and Artforum.
