ZoË Ryan to Lead Hammer Museum

TheHammer Museumhas announced curator Zoë Ryan as its next director, effective January 1, 2025. Ryan arrives to the Los Angeles institution from the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where she has served as director since 2020. She will fill the role vacated by Ann Philbin, who over the course of twenty-five years transformed the Hammer from a stodgy institution housing late petroleum magnate Armand Hammer’s collection of old masters to a lively, internationally renowned contemporary art museum. Philbinannouncedher retirement in October 2023 and will depart the institution in November.

While at the ICA Philadelphia, the London-born Ryan led the creation of an annual art commission; increased public engagement; and, with Meg Onli and Erin Christovale, cocurated a retrospective of underrecognized L.A. video artist Ulysses Jenkins. Before joining that institution, she served as chair and curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she oversaw a collection of more than 250,000 objects. In 2014, she curated the Second Istanbul Design Biennial.

Ryan told the L.A. Times that she prized the Hammer Museum’s commitment to promoting the work of experimental, interdisciplinary, and emerging artists, citing the Made in L.A. and Hammer Projects initiatives launched by Philbin as lodestars. “In many ways the Hammer shares my values and interests,” Ryan said. “Its mission is artist-centered. Its program is at the intersection of art and social justice, and it has a strong connection to the [University of California, Los Angeles]. This is an environment that I find really rewarding.”

Philbin, who first met Ryan in 2022, when the pair worked together on the Jenkins exhibition, praised Ryan’s dedication to artists, particularly those on the margins, and to diverse voices. Philbin also noted the value of Ryan’s experience leading a university-based institution. “I love that the Hammer is a place that really cherishes, nurtures and serves the artists,” said Philbin, “and if I know anything about Zoë, I know that that is a legacy that she will continue.”