PITTSBURGH, PA.- Richard Armstrong, the Henry J. Heinz II director of Carnegie Museum of Art, today announced the appointment of Douglas Fogle as curator of contemporary art. Fogle will organize the 55th Carnegie International, which will open in May 2008. Fogle, who is currently curator of visual arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, will assume his duties in summer 2005.

“Douglas Fogle embodies characteristics that distinguish the best curators of contemporary art,” said Armstrong. “His prescience and empathy, articulate thinking and organizational skills make him rare among his peers as well as a tremendous addition to the arts in Pittsburgh.”

In addition to his role as curator of the 2008 Carnegie International, Fogle will be responsible for new acquisitions and the presentation of the museum’s contemporary art collection.

Fogle began his association with Walker Art Center in 1994 as a visual arts intern. In 1995, he was promoted to curatorial assistant, then assistant curator in 1997, associate curator in 2000, and curator in 2003.

At the Walker, Fogle organized a number of exhibitions including: Stills: Emerging Photography in the 1990s (1997); six programs of the Dialogues series, which pairs emerging artists from New York City with the artists of Minneapolis and St. Paul (1997–2002); Painting at the Edge of the World (2001); Catherine Opie: Skyways and Icehouses (2002); Julie Mehretu: Drawing into Painting (2003); and The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960–1982 (2003–2004). He also co-curated How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age (2003) with Philippe Vergne and Olukemi Ilesamni. In November 2005, Fogle’s forthcoming exhibition Andy Warhol/ Supernova: Stars, Deaths, Disasters, 1962–1964 will open at the Walker.

“I am honored to have been invited to join an institution that has been at the forefront of presenting the ‘new’ to local, national, and international audiences for over a hundred years,” said Fogle. “I am equally excited about the incredible possibilities that the Carnegie International will offer me as a curator to open a dialogue between the world at large and the community of Pittsburgh.”

Marcia Gumberg, chairman of the museum’s Board added, “Douglas Fogle is a welcome addition to the museum’s curatorial staff. And based on his achievements to date, the Board shares the general sense of excitement as he leads us toward the next Carnegie International.”

Fogle received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1986; he began his doctoral studies in the history of consciousness with an emphasis on contemporary visual culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1987 and advanced to candidacy in 1991. He was a lecturer in the Art History Board at the museum from 1992–1994. Fogle has also written for several exhibition catalogues and journals such as Artforum, frieze, Flash Art, and Parkett. Fogle succeeds Laura Hoptman as the museum’s contemporary art curator.