Plus, the Newark Museum, Grey Art Museum, and the Clark Art Institute get new directors.
Lisa Yin Zhang
January 29, 2026
— 2 min read
Robert Wiesenberger (photo by Erin Johnson, courtesy the Brooklyn Museum)
Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
Brooklyn Museum Fills Its Top Contemporary Curator Spot
Robert Wiesenberger was named senior curator of contemporary art at the Brooklyn Museum, a post that has been vacant since the departure of Eugenie Tsai in 2023. He comes from the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where he was curator of contemporary projects, and was previously a curatorial fellow at the Harvard Art Museums.
A New Director at the Newark Museum of Art
Lisa Funderburke was named the chief executive and director of New Jersey's largest art museum, departing her post as president and chief executive of Artist Communities Alliance, an international association of artist residencies. She starts Monday!
Read more on Hyperallergic.
Alison Weaver is the new director of NYU's Grey Art Museum (photo by Geoff Winningham, courtesy NYU)Transitions
- Alison Weaver was appointed director of the Grey Art Museum at New York University, departing from her post as executive director at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston.
- Esther Bell was appointed director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, following her promotion from deputy director and chief curator.
- Freya Douglas-Morris is now represented by Lehmann Maupin.
- Patrick Elliott was named curator of modern paintings at the National Gallery in London.
- The Estate of Peter Hujar is now represented by Ortuzar gallery in collaboration with Fraenkel Gallery, as well as the Peter Hujar Foundation.
- Phoebe Helander is now represented by PPOW gallery.
- Joe Hill was appointed director of Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England, Europe's largest sculpture park.
- Emil Sands is now co-represented by Victoria Miro and Olney Gleason galleries.
- Anuradha Vikram and Leon J. Hilton were named associate curators of High Performance: A 2-Year Conference, a multi-year initiative at the Performance Art Museum.
- Miami's David Castillo Gallery is now representing Studio Lenca in North America.
A painting by Studio Lenca on view at David Castillo Gallery in Miami in December 2025 (photo Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic)Awards
- Tarek Atoui was awarded the Tate Modern's 11th annual Turbine Hall commission.
- Sara Shamma will represent Syria at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Wildcard
Graham Granger, a 19-year-old undergraduate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was charged with criminal mischief after eating parts of another student's AI-generated artwork in protest of his use of ChatGPT. "He was tearing them up and just shoving them in as much as he could,” a witness told Anchorage Daily News. “Like when you see people in a hot-dog-eating contest.” He's a performing arts major, as you might've guessed, and don't worry, he hasn't reported any symptoms of indigestion.
