Nicholas Baume

Nicholas Baume was appointed Director and Chief Curator of Public Art Fund in September 2009. Recent exhibitions include solo projects by Ryan Gander, Paola Pivi, Rob Pruitt, and Eva Rothschild; the group exhibitions Statuesque and Common Ground; the major career survey, Sol LeWitt: Structures 1965 – 2006; and Tatzu Nishi: Discovering Columbus, the artist’s first ever public work in the United States.

Prior to joining Public Art Fund, Baume served as Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He was responsible for shaping the artistic program from 2003-2009, including shows with Kai Althoff, Kader Attia, Carol Bove, Tara Donovan, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Anish Kapoor; the establishment of a permanent collection for the 2006 opening of the museum’s award-winning new building by Diller Scofidio + Renfro; and the ongoing Momentum project series. A native of Australia, Baume was a Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney before moving to the U.S. in 1998 to become Contemporary Curator at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Among his exhibitions there were About Face: Andy Warhol Portraits; Sol LeWitt: Incomplete Open Cubes; and Noncomposition: Fifteen Case Studies. He also organized the first American solo museum shows by Francis Alÿs, Sam Durant, Christian Jankowski, Catherine Sullivan, and Fiona Tan.