Rebecca Lowery named curator of exhibitions

On Monday, February 24, Rebecca Lowery will join the Wexner Center for the Arts as the new curator of exhibitions. A passionate advocate for contemporary art, Lowery comes to the multidisciplinary arts space at The Ohio State University from the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. 

“I’m thrilled to join the Wexner Center in this exciting time of growth,” Lowery says. “I have long admired the Wex, both in its role as a space to explore artistic ideas and as a key site of civic participation and open dialogue within Ohio State’s educational mandates. I look forward to working with the team to develop programming that engages and is responsive to the wide range of local, national, and global communities this multifaceted institution touches.” 

“Rebecca’s rich blend of experience in curation, research, and education is an ideal fit for our goal to present world-class contemporary art alongside opportunities for lifelong learning and community engagement,” says Wexner Center Executive Director Gaëtane Verna. 

Over seven years at MOCA LA, Lowery ascended from a position as curatorial assistant to the role of associate curator. She has mounted or supported numerous major exhibitions at the institution, including 2024’s Josh Kline: Climate Change and Olafur Eliasson: OPEN, and 2023 surveys of the careers of Simone Forti and Tala Madani.  

Prior to her time in Los Angeles, Lowery began her career in New York. She held curatorial positions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Grey Art Gallery at New York University, held research positions at the Met and the Museum of Modern Art, and taught at New York University in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.  

Lowery has also been published extensively. In addition to editing and contributing essays to MOCA LA exhibition catalogues such as With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 (2019), she has contributed to the catalogues for MoMA’s Picasso Sculpture (2015) and the Met’s Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years (2012), as well as the Cambridge Scholars anthology Conflict, Identity, and Protest in American Art (2016). Lowery holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. 

“Rebecca is a strategic complement to our team,” notes Head of Exhibitions Julieta González. “Her career path has prepared her well for developing new exhibitions for a contemporary arts center at a top research university, and for exploring the other possibilities such an institution provides. I am so happy to welcome her, and we are excited to get to work on future programming.”