Nancy Spector is widely recognized as one of the leading curators of her generation. With an
expertise in contemporary art, she is renowned for championing living artists, working to
realize their respective visions in numerous paradigm-shattering exhibitions and accompanying
scholarly catalogues.
As the Guggenheim Museum’s first Artistic Director and Chief Curator, a position created for
her in 2017, Spector played a cardinal role in conceptualizing and overseeing the creative
programming for the institution and its affiliates around the world. In her combined 34 years at
the museum in various curatorial capacities, she served as a change agent, advocating for
experimental programming, diverse representation, exponential collection growth, the disruption of
the art-historical canon, strategic alliances with an array of philanthropic sources, and broad public
outreach.
Spector’s critically lauded exhibitions include Rebecca Horn: The Inferno-Paradiso-
Switch (with Germano Celant, 1992); Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1995); Robert Rauschenberg:
Performance (1997); Sugimoto: Portraits (2001); Matthew Barney’s The CREMASTER Cycle (2002–03);
Richard Prince: Spiritual America (2007); Louise Bourgeois (with Tate Modern and Centre Georges
Pompidou, 2008); theanyspacewhatever (2009); Tino Sehgal (2010); Maurizio Cattelan: All (2011-12);
Gabriel Orozco: Asterisms (2012–13); Fischli and Weiss: How to Work Better (2015) and Artistic License: Six
Takes on the Guggenheim Collection (with Cai Guo Qiang, Paul Chan, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu,
Richard Prince, and Carrie Mae Weems, 2019). In 2007 she served as the U.S. Commissioner for the
Venice Biennale, where she presented an exhibition of work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. In 1998, she
co-curated the first Berlin Biennial (with Klaus Biesenbach and Hans-Ulrich Obrist).
In addition to her exhibitions, Spector initiated numerous curatorial endeavors at the
Guggenheim, such as its biannual Hugo Boss Prize for excellence in contemporary art, which has
supported a global array of artists since 1996. She established the ten-year Panza Collection Initiative
in collaboration with the museum’s Conservation Department, funded by The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation to study questions of refabrication in the art of the 1960s and ‘70s. She also
spearheaded innovative corporate collaborations such as the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Arts
Initiative, YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video, and the BMW Guggenheim Lab.
Spector is a recipient of the Peter Norton Family Foundation Curators Award, five International
Art Critics Association Awards, and a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award for her work on
YouTube Play. In 2014, she was included in the 40 Women Over 40 to Watch list. She was awarded
an Honorary Degree from Pratt Institute in 2019.
She currently serves as a Fellow at the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, is an International Artistic Advisor for the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris, and is a member of the Scientific Committee for Mudam, the Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg.
expertise in contemporary art, she is renowned for championing living artists, working to
realize their respective visions in numerous paradigm-shattering exhibitions and accompanying
scholarly catalogues.
As the Guggenheim Museum’s first Artistic Director and Chief Curator, a position created for
her in 2017, Spector played a cardinal role in conceptualizing and overseeing the creative
programming for the institution and its affiliates around the world. In her combined 34 years at
the museum in various curatorial capacities, she served as a change agent, advocating for
experimental programming, diverse representation, exponential collection growth, the disruption of
the art-historical canon, strategic alliances with an array of philanthropic sources, and broad public
outreach.
Spector’s critically lauded exhibitions include Rebecca Horn: The Inferno-Paradiso-
Switch (with Germano Celant, 1992); Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1995); Robert Rauschenberg:
Performance (1997); Sugimoto: Portraits (2001); Matthew Barney’s The CREMASTER Cycle (2002–03);
Richard Prince: Spiritual America (2007); Louise Bourgeois (with Tate Modern and Centre Georges
Pompidou, 2008); theanyspacewhatever (2009); Tino Sehgal (2010); Maurizio Cattelan: All (2011-12);
Gabriel Orozco: Asterisms (2012–13); Fischli and Weiss: How to Work Better (2015) and Artistic License: Six
Takes on the Guggenheim Collection (with Cai Guo Qiang, Paul Chan, Jenny Holzer, Julie Mehretu,
Richard Prince, and Carrie Mae Weems, 2019). In 2007 she served as the U.S. Commissioner for the
Venice Biennale, where she presented an exhibition of work by Felix Gonzalez-Torres. In 1998, she
co-curated the first Berlin Biennial (with Klaus Biesenbach and Hans-Ulrich Obrist).
In addition to her exhibitions, Spector initiated numerous curatorial endeavors at the
Guggenheim, such as its biannual Hugo Boss Prize for excellence in contemporary art, which has
supported a global array of artists since 1996. She established the ten-year Panza Collection Initiative
in collaboration with the museum’s Conservation Department, funded by The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation to study questions of refabrication in the art of the 1960s and ‘70s. She also
spearheaded innovative corporate collaborations such as the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Arts
Initiative, YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video, and the BMW Guggenheim Lab.
Spector is a recipient of the Peter Norton Family Foundation Curators Award, five International
Art Critics Association Awards, and a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award for her work on
YouTube Play. In 2014, she was included in the 40 Women Over 40 to Watch list. She was awarded
an Honorary Degree from Pratt Institute in 2019.
She currently serves as a Fellow at the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, is an International Artistic Advisor for the Louis Vuitton Fondation in Paris, and is a member of the Scientific Committee for Mudam, the Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg.