Manuel Segade Named Director of Reina Sofía

Cuartor and art historian Manuel Segade has been announced as the next director of Madrid’s Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía,The Art Newspaperreports. Segade, who holds a degree in art history from the University of Santiago de Compostela, is the director of Dos de Mayo Art Center Museum, a contemporary art center in Madrid’s Móstoles municipality. He replaces longtime leader Manuel Borja-Villel, who in Januaryannounced his resignationfrom the post, considered one of the most prestigious roles in the contemporary art world. The Spanish Ministry of Culture in a statement praised Segade as “the candidate that obtained the highest score during the selection process.”RelatedHELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION SUED FOR “DESTROYING” PAINTER’S LEGACYBMA CREATES PAID INTERNSHIPS HONORING VALERIE MAYNARD Prior to arriving at Dos de Mayo, Segade served as programming coordinator for the Metronóm space at Barcelona’s Rafael Tous d’Art Contemporani Foundation and as chief curator of the Galician Center for Contemporary Art in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In 2017, he curated the Spanish pavilion at the Venice Biennale, showing work by Jordi Colomer, a Spanish artist whose practice encompasses video, installation, and sculpture.

Borja-Villel, who in 2007 wasunanimously electeddirector of the Reina Sofía, is currentlycocuratingthe 2023 São Paulo Bienal, slated to open in September. He is known for having elevated modern and contemporary Spanish artists both famous and unknown and for promoting Latin American art. Widely credited with having transformed the Reina Sofía into an internationally renowned contemporary art institution during his tenure there, Borja-Villel staged a well-received rehang of the museum’s collection in 2021. His departure came after right-wing newspaperABCaccused the Reina Sofía of having improperly extended his contract. Both Borja Villel and the museum refuted the allegations, and nearly two thousand art-world professionals signed anopen lettersupporting the respected curator and denouncing the “cultural war” stirred up by Spain’s “extreme right” as having led to his departure..