Mami Kataoka to become Director of Mori Art Museum
Mami Kataoka is Member of the Board and Secretary-Treasurer of CIMAM, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art.
19 September – The Mori Art Museum is announcing today that the current Director, Nanjo Fumio, will be retiring as of the end of December 2019 and that the current Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Kataoka Mami, will take office on January 1, 2020.
Nanjo Fumio took office in November 2006 as the successor of the first Director, David Elliott, and has led the Mori Art Museum for 13 years. During his tenure, he has developed the Museum’s networks, both within Japan and internationally, so as to have the Museum gain international acclaim, and it is fair to say that presence of the Mori Art Museum has subsequently become solid. Nanjo will be assuming the position of Special Advisor afterwards.
Kataoka Mami, who is to take over the current role of Nanjo at the Museum, has made numerous achievements as a curator and has been active internationally, including serving as the Artistic Director of the Sydney Biennale in 2018. In the age of diversity, Kataoka is expected to demonstrate her skills as one of the very few women museum directors in Japan.
Establishing a new system in the year 2020 where Tokyo gathers utmost worldwide attention, the Mori Art Museum is determined to continue making further efforts in today’s global society where a wave of big changes are swirling - to fulfill our mission as a contemporary art museum by embracing the concepts of “ international ” and “contemporary. ”
Mami Kataoka
Born 1965 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Kataoka was Chief Curator at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery (1997-2002) prior to the Mori Art Museum (2003-) where she now serves as Deputy Director (October 2018-) and Chief Curator (2009-). Kataoka was also International Curator at the Hayward Gallery, London (2007-2009); Co-Artistic Director for the 9th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2012); and Artistic Director of the 21st Biennale of Sydney (2018). She serves as Board Member of CIMAM [International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art] and Professor at Kyoto University of Art and Design Graduate School of Art and Design Studies.
Her projects at Mori includes a number of solo exhibitions for Asian mid-career artists including Ai Weiwei (2009/2012-2014), Aida Makoto (2012), N. S. Harsha (2017) and Shiota Chiharu (2019-). She also co-curated Roppongi Crossing triennial exhibition series (2004/2013) that introduces contemporary art from Japan. She curated a thematic exhibition All about Laughter: Humor in Contemporary Art (2007) and co-curated a regional exhibition SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia from 1980s to Now (2017) among others. Kataoka frequently writes and lectures on contemporary art from Japan, Asia and beyond.
Read the full Press Release published by Mori Art Museum, 19 September 2019.