Kelly Taxter Named Deputy Director of Artists Space

Kelly Taxter, who from 2013 to 2021 served as the Barnett and Annalee Newman Curator of Contemporary Art at the Jewish Museum in New York, has been announced as the new deputy director of the nonprofit Artists Space farther downtown. Taxter steps into her new role today; her last exhibition for the Jewish Museum, “After the Wild: Contemporary Art from the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection,” opens at that institution in March.

“I could not be more excited to welcome Kelly Taxter to Artists Space,” said Artists Space executive director and chief curator Jay Sanders. “Over the past two decades, Kelly has contributed substantively to the art world in myriad ways,” said I know she will be a fantastic addition to our team in the important role of deputy director, providing vision and leadership that will be integral to our future.”

At the Jewish Museum, Taxter oversaw major exhibitions of the work of artists including Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Rachel Feinstein, Jonas Mekas, and Isaac Mizrahi. After leaving the museum in 2021, she briefly served as director of the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill, New York.  With Pascal Spengemann, she cofounded the New York gallery Taxter & Spengemann, which from 2003 through 2011 represented artists including Lutz Bacher, Frank Benson, Xavier Cha, Adam Putnam, Kalup Linzy, Wardell Milan, and A.L. Steiner. A 2017 alumnus of the Getty Leadership Institute, Taxter earned her BFA at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University her MFA at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College.

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