Katarina Pierre steps down after 16 years as artistic director of Bildmuseet

Under Katarina Pierre’s leadership, Bildmuseet at Umeå University has presented the work of some of the most significant artists of our time, including Zanele Muholi, William Kentridge, Ana Mendieta, Agnès Varda and Mario Merz. Through ambitious solo exhibitions at Bildmuseet, many internationally significant artists have been introduced to Swedish or Nordic audiences for the first time, including Leonor Fini, Faith Ringgold, Walid Raad, Eva Koťátková, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Shubigi Rao. Katarina Pierre has also curated several of these premieres, independently or in collaboration, including solo presentations of Dayanita Singh, Zineb Sedira, John Akomfrah, Grada Kilomba, Nancy Holt and Belkis Ayón. The thematic exhibitions she has co-curated include Right is Wrong, on the emergence of contemporary art in China, Entangle / Art and Physics, and AI and the Paradox of Agency, currently on view at Bildmuseet.

Postcolonial themes, geopolitics and questions of centres and peripheries in the art world have been central to Katarina Pierre’s work. In the lead-up to Umeå’s year as the European Capital of Culture in 2014, she initiated a substantial programme of new commissions and solo exhibitions with Sámi artists who are now established on the international art scene, including Anders Sunna, Katarina Pirak Sikku and Joar Nango. Through collaborative projects and thematic exhibitions such as Down North / Contemporary Art in the Arctic and Art and Truth-Telling, Bildmuseet has continued to foreground artists working in the north. Katarina Pierre also initiated Networking North, a regional networking and professional development project for artists in northern Sweden.

Collaboration and exchange have been hallmarks of Katarina Pierre’s work as museum director. Her vision for Bildmuseet has been to create a place for encounters between people, between art and other disciplines and between the global and the local. Through compelling and relevant exhibitions, a welcoming public programme ranging from talks by artists and researchers to painting for babies, Art Fridays and creative workshops, as well as a unique commitment to visitor engagement, Katarina Pierre has established an art institution that combines artistic excellence with broad public engagement. She now passes the baton to the next museum director, who will take Bildmuseet forward into a new chapter.

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