The curator and art historian James Meyer has been appointed as the deputy director and chief curator of the Dia Art Foundation, a newly-created position. Meyer will take up his post in January 2016. The announcement comes shortly after Jessica Morgan, Dia’s director since January 2015, revealed to The Art Newspaper that the foundation’s previous plans to build a new space in New York have been abandoned.
Meyer is currently an associate curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where he has organised shows on Kerry James Marshall and Mel Bochner, as well as an adjunct professor of Art History at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he also received his doctorate. His writings include the well-received book Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties (Yale University Press, 2001). “My own scholarship strongly relates to Dia’s collection and curatorial programme,” Meyer said in a statement, expressing that he is “very pleased” to join the foundation. Jessica Morgan also stressed the importance of Meyer’s scholarship, as well as “the deep respect he has earned among artists”, as key qualities that he will bring to the table in his new role.