Eungie Joo, the curator and head of up to date artwork on the San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork (SFMoMA), was fired from her place on Tuesday (17 December) for allegedly violating the museum’s insurance policies governing office conduct.
Information of her firing was first reported by The San Francisco Normal. The museum has not publicly shared any details about the character of Joo’s alleged infraction. In a press release to The Artwork Newspaper, a spokesperson for the museum stated: “In accordance with institutional coverage on office conduct, Eungie Joo was separated from SFMoMA on December 17. We don’t touch upon the specifics of personnel issues.” Joo has not responded to The Artwork Newspaper’s inquiry about her dismissal.
The curator’s most up-to-date venture at SFMoMA was an bold new venture by the US artist Kara Walker, Fortuna and the Immortality Backyard (Machine), which is on long-term view (till spring 2026) in a single the museum’s admission-free ground-floor galleries. The set up, which options an ensemble of animatronic and interactive sculptures, attracts on touchstones like Octavia Butler’s science-fiction novel Parable of the Sower (1993) and, like a lot of Walker’s work, addresses the traumas of America’s violent historical past. In 2019-20 Joo curated the thematic exhibition SOFT POWER, which featured works by 20 artists seizing on artwork’s capability to mirror and affect social forces.
Joo was employed by SFMoMA in 2017, changing into the primary individual to carry the place of curator of up to date artwork on the establishment. Instantly previous to her hiring, she had served because the lead curator of two high-profile worldwide exhibitions: the 2016 version of Anyang Public Artwork Venture in Korea and the 2015 version of the Sharjah Biennial. She was additionally the commissioner of the Korean Pavilion on the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Joo got here to the SFMoMA function with in depth institutional expertise, having served because the director and curator of schooling and public programmes on the New Museum in New York from 2007 to 2012, and because the director of artwork and cultural programmes at Instituto Inhotim in Brazil from 2012 to 2014. She acquired her doctorate from the College of California, Berkeley and, in 2006, gained the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement, a prize conferred by the Menil Basis.
Joo’s firing comes after a number of vital adjustments at SFMoMA in recent times. In 2020 its chief curator of portray and sculpture, Gary Garrels, resigned after making feedback that some workers considered racist. The next 12 months, amid budgetary cuts because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the museum did away with its movie programme, publishing platform and different initiatives. And final 12 months the museum eradicated 20 positions amid persistently low attendance and income following the pandemic. Additionally throughout this era, the museum raised its normal admission charge to $30 and employed Christopher Bedford as its new director, succeeding Neal Benezra.
