The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, a modestly sized but formidable institution dedicated to the medium, has named Carlos Basualdo as director. He succeeds longtime director Jeremy Strick, who retired in June 2024, and will start at the Nasher on May 12, according to the New York Times, which first reported the news.
For two decades, Basualdo had been a curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). He joined as a senior curator in 2005 and was promoted to deputy director and chief curator at the end of 2022, becoming the museum』s first-ever chief curator. In 2024 he was made curator at large and is currently on sabbatical from the museum.
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As a curator, Basualdo has had a storied career on the biennial circuit. With the PMA serving as commissioner, he was a cocurator of the United States Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale. That solo presentation by Bruce Nauman won the festival』s Golden Lion for best national participation, marking only the second US win. He was also one of 10 curators who organized a section within the main exhibition of the 2003 Venice Biennale. Additionally, he was on the curatorial team for Okwui Enwezor』s Documenta 11 in 2002.
At the PMA, he staged ambitious exhibitions, like 「Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror,」 a collaboration with the Whitney Museum, in which the exhibition opened simultaneously in 2021 at both institutions, as well as 「Dancing Around the Bride: Cage, Cunningham, Johns, Rauschenberg and Duchamp」 in 2012, which looked at the legacy of Marcel Duchamp with a nod to the PMA』s strong holding of that artist, including his 1915–23 work The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass).
Prior to the PMA, he was chief curator of exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, from 2000 to 2002. He also worked independently on major traveling exhibitions like 「Untitled: The Public Works of Felix Gonzalez-Torres」 (1999) and 「Tropicalia: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture」 (2005).
In a statement, Nasher board chair David Haemisegger said Basualdo』s 「distinguished career and curatorial achievements align perfectly with our mission to champion the field of sculpture. Carlos』s appointment marks a dynamic new moment for the museum, and we are excited for what lies ahead under his leadership and how he will build on the Nasher』s enduring legacy.」
At the Nasher, Basualdo will oversee an institution with a $13 million operating budget and a collection of some 500 works, ranging from sculptures by Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, and Alberto Giacometti to Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning, and Mark di Suvero to Melvin Edwards, Nicole Eisenman, and Simone Leigh. Many of these are on view in its famed outdoor sculpture garden. (The collection also includes films and works on paper.)
Recent exhibitions in its Renzo Piano–designed building, located across the street from the Dallas Art Museum, have been dedicated to Samara Golden, Hugh Hayden, Sarah Sze, Thaddeus Mosley, Carol Bove, and Betye Saar, as well as the 2023 exhibition 「Groundswell: Women of Land Art,」 which aimed to revise the canon of Land art.
In addition to its exhibition program, the Nasher awards the Nasher Prize, given to 「a living artist whose body of work has had an extraordinary impact on our understanding of sculpture,」 according to its website. Coming with a $100,000 cash prize and an exhibition at the center, the Prize, now awarded biannually, has gone to Doris Salcedo, Pierre Huyghe, Theaster Gates, Nairy Baghramian, Senga Nengundi, and Otobong Nkanga, the current laureate whose exhibition opened earlier this year.
In a joint interview with ARTnews in 2021, ahead of the Johns exhibition opening, Basualdo spoke of his approach to curating, influenced by his first love of poetry and the cultural scene he was a part of in his home country of Argentina: 「[T]here were vivid conversations at the time across multiple disciplines. I was interested in what an exhibition could do as a medium for combining ideas, different from though related to poetry. For me, from the very beginning, exhibitions were a way to think about creating a sort of extension of what I was trying to do with my work as a poet.」
Update, April 17, 2025: This article has been updated to include a statement from David Haemisegger.