DALLAS, TX.- Maxwell L. Anderson, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, today announced the appointment of Gavin Delahunty as the new Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. Currently the Head of Exhibitions and Displays at Tate Liverpool, part of the family of Tate galleries, and previously Curator at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Delahunty is a leading specialist in post-war art with strong experience in expanding contemporary art collections and programs. He will join the DMA in the spring.

“Gavin shares the DMA’s vision for the important role that contemporary art plays in broadening our community’s understanding of the global art world, and its significance in revealing relationships and connections with art from other genres and time periods,” said Anderson. “We are committed to expanding our renowned contemporary collections and to highlighting the work of living artists, and are delighted to have Gavin join us in Dallas. His experience and knowledge will be an invaluable asset as we continue to develop our contemporary program.”

In his new role at the DMA, Delahunty will lead the Museum’s Department of Contemporary Art and oversee its exhibitions, programming, publication, and acquisition programs. Working in collaboration with and reporting to Olivier Meslay, the DMA’s Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs, and other colleagues throughout the Museum, Delahunty will further cultivate and showcase the DMA’s contemporary collections and enhance the Museum’s scholarship in this collection area through the organization of special exhibitions. Delahunty succeeds Jeffrey Grove, who in May 2013 was named the Museum’s Senior Curator of Special Projects & Research.

“It is a privilege to be joining the team at the DMA. The Museum is home to one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary art in the United States and has an astonishing exhibition history having played host to artists such as Karla Black, Matt Mullican, Cady Noland, Bridget Riley and Robert Rauschenberg. I look forward to working with the team at the DMA and the Dallas community to develop this world-class collection and deliver a dynamic exhibitions program.”

As Head of Exhibitions and Displays since 2010, Delahunty has managed, implemented and enhanced the exhibition program at Tate Liverpool. During his tenure at Tate Liverpool he has curated a number of important and acclaimed exhibitions that have toured within Europe, including Alice in Wonderland: Through the Visual Arts, 2011; Charline von Heyl: Now or Else, 2012; and Chagall: Modern Master, 2013. Additional projects included solo exhibitions on the work of Robert Therrien, 2011 and Matt Saunders, 2013, and a distinctive group exhibition exploring experimentation by artists utilizing drawing throughout the twentieth century entitled Tracing the Century: Drawing as a Catalyst for Change, 2013. His forthcoming exhibition Keywords: Art, Culture & Society in 1980s Britain, in partnership with Iniva, Institute of International Visual Arts, London, is scheduled to open at Tate Liverpool in February 2014. Since 2011, Delahunty has been working on a catalogue raisonné of the poems of Carl Andre. He is published widely with forthcoming essays on Carl Andre (JPR|Ringier), Padraig Timoney (Electa Mondadori) and Ellsworth Kelly (Phaidon).

From 2007 through 2010, as Curator at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima), Delahunty organized such significant exhibitions as British Surrealism & Other Realities, 2008; Katy Moran: Paintings, 2009; Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings 1954-62, 2010; and A Certain Distance Endless Light: A project by Felix Gonzalez-Torres & William McKeown, 2010. His exhibition Gerhard Richter: Lines which do not exist, 2010, which opened at The Drawing Center, New York, showcased the artist’s works on paper for the first time in the United States. After securing a six figure sum from the Art Fund, Delahunty led the Art Fund International Award in consultation with The Drawing Center, overseeing a significant number of major acquisitions for the mima collection. He has worked for several important institutions over the course of his career, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art; the Douglas Hyde Gallery; Project Arts Centre and Modern Art Oxford.

Delahunty holds a Master of Arts degree in Visual Arts Practices from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dublin (2004), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art and Print from Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork Ireland (1999). He has served since 2007 as a lecturer in art history at a series of distinguished educational institutions that include the Royal College of Art, The University of York, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, the University of Edinburgh, and, most recently, at the University of Northampton School of the Arts.

Delahunty will work closely with Gabriel Ritter, the DMA’s Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art.