NEW YORK, NY.- David Maupin and Rachel Lehmann announce the appointment of Katherine Rochester as Curatorial Director. Rochester previously served as Director of Curatorial Research at VIA Art Fund, where she directed VIA’s $1 million annual grantmaking program; partnered with artists and institutions around the world to curate, produce, and acquire major contemporary commissions; and helped realize ambitious projects with artists such as Wu Tsang, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Charles Gaines and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, among many others. Prior to VIA, Rochester held curatorial roles at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

In the role of Curatorial Director, Rochester will work closely with senior leadership to advance Lehmann Maupin’s artistic program, collaborating across departments to foster institutional relationships and set artistic strategy worldwide. She will lead research and programming initiatives that foster critical engagement with the gallery’s roster. Focused on expanding relationships with museums and biennials, Rochester will partner with institutional colleagues to ensure that audiences have the opportunity to engage with gallery artists through exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications.

“Rachel and I were immediately impressed by Katherine’s global experience and her expertise as a curator, researcher, and author, as well as her important work with underrepresented artists and filmmakers,” said David Maupin, co-founder. “The rigor with which she approaches her work was evident from our first meeting. She has created critical context for some of the most prominent voices of this generation, such as Carolina Caycedo and Charles Gaines. We have every confidence that her skills and commitment to art will support our larger programmatic efforts to bolster critical engagement with–and the legacy of–the artists in our program.”

“I have long admired Lehmann Maupin’s program for the exceptional quality of its artists and its distinct international footprint,” said Katherine Rochester. “As galleries increasingly deliver museum-quality shows, the time feels ripe to think across historically siloed sectors of the art world in the service of centering today’s most important artistic voices. The opportunity to shape global arts discourse in partnership with the visionary artists in Lehmann Maupin’s program is thrilling. I look forward to working with Rachel, David, and the whole Lehmann Maupin team to advance the gallery’s curatorial program in museums, biennials, and institutions throughout the world.”

Katherine Rochester is an American art historian and curator who has worked extensively in the United States and Europe. Born in Paris with an international childhood that spanned Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, Rochester’s career has followed a similar trajectory with chapters in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Berlin. As Director of Curatorial Research at VIA Art Fund, she oversaw VIA's grantmaking programs for the production, curation, and acquisition of contemporary art. Katherine arrived at VIA Art Fund from the Getty Research Institute, where she co-curated exhibitions that spanned the breadth of the GRI’s vast collections. MONUMENTality explored the historic dislocation/relocation of monuments, the concept of cosmic scale in land art of the 1960s and ‘70s, and the mediation of power through monuments in fascist, communist, and democratic regimes. Another exhibition, Bauhaus Beginnings, marked the centenary of the Bauhaus with a focused investigation of the relationship between Expressionism and arts pedagogy. Prior to the Getty, Katherine held positions at the ICA Philadelphia, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Walker Art Center. Based in Berlin, she conducted three years of fellowship-supported research in Germany and organized a major exhibition on experimental film at the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf and the Stadtmuseum Tübingen, among other projects. A specialist in modern and contemporary art and film, Rochester has focused her research on experimental media, with a particular emphasis on women artists and the history of the moving image and its display. Her publications have cemented previously overlooked artists into the art historical canon and generated new fields of critical inquiry that center marginalized voices. In addition to critical writing for Artforum and a book series on intersubjectivity with Sternberg Press, she has published and lectured widely on modern and contemporary art. Rochester holds a B.A. from Grinnell College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College.