FRESH CURATORIAL VOICES MUSEUM

A warm welcome to four recent appointees to the Asian Art Museum’s curatorial roster. Yoon-Jee Choi joins us as Assistant Curator for Korean Art. Yoon-Jee has previously held a position at the National Museum of Korea. She is a Ph.D. candidate in art history from the University of Chicago and earned her BA from Ewha Womans University in Seoul; her research now focuses on premodern and modern art historical interactions between Korea and other East Asian countries, particularly focusing on craft, though her keen perspective on contemporary art aligns perfectly with the museum’s ever-broadening focus.

Naz Cuguoğlu ( joo-gu-oh-loo) joined us in the fall of 2022 as the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art & Programs; she was also a 2022 Practice Institute Fellow. Originally from Istanbul, she has curated exhibitions and programs internationally at documenta fifteen, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Walters Art Museum, The Wattis Institute, 15th Istanbul Biennial Public Program, and many others. A widely published author and editor, Naz also previously held positions at KADIST, Wattis

Institute, de Young Museum, and SFMOMA. She received her MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts and holds degrees in Psychology (BA) and Social Psychology (MA) from Koç University, Istanbul.

Dr. Padma Dorje Maitland, the newly-appointed Malavalli Family Foundation Associate Curator of the Art of the Indian Subcontinent, comes to us from a teaching position with California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, prior to which he served in curatorial positions at Stanford’s Cantor Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Padma holds doctorates in South Asian studies and architectural history and theory from U.C. Berkeley. Members may recognize him from last year’s presentation of After Hope: Videos of Resistance in the Doris Shoong and Theodore Bo Lee Gallery, an exhibition he co-curated before becoming a Practice Institute Fellow.

Cheng Xu joins us as an Assistant Curator with a focus on technology. Her appointment is an exciting step in organizing our contemporary gaming exhibition in 2025; her work will involve prototyping technology-based experiences in the Lee Gallery, and partnering with the museum’s Practice Institute to document the initiative and what we learn from it. Cheng holds an MA in Mechanical Engineering from Yale, an MA in Tangible Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon, and a BA in Mechanical Engineering from Tsinghua University.

“Museums are always growing and changing, which is what makes them exciting places to visit again and again,” says The Barbara Bass Bakar Director and CEO Dr. Jay Xu. “You might also have noticed what several of these fresh faces have in common: a relationship to the Practice Institute, our new multidisciplinary platform and residency for curator- and artistled research into the structures, experiences, and ‘practices’ of museums today. It’s an integral part of our strategic plan, and it builds upon the incredible contributions — and creative ambitions — of this exceptionally dynamic group of curators.” n