Curator Ebony L Haynes Joins Marian Goodman As Gallery Revamps Leadership
Haynes leaves David Zwirner, where she spearheaded the gallery’s lauded 52 Walker exhibition space, to join a reinvigorated management team at Marion Goodman, which also sees Rose Lord and Junette Teng becoming co‑presidents.
Ebony L Haynes, founder and director of David Zwirner’s autonomous Tribeca exhibition space 52 Walker, will depart the New York City project and join Marian Goodman Gallery in the newly created position of senior director, global head of curatorial affairs.
Following five years at David Zwirner, the critic, curator and gallery director will join the management team at Marian Goodman in November, when she will start work on exhibitions and special projects that “deepen and expand” its international programme.
Haynes joins the gallery as it evolves its leadership structure, with partners Rose Lord and Junette Teng transitioning to the roles of co-president, meaning they will oversee the gallery’s strategic direction and lead the management team from now on.
Haynes’ appointment offers a glimpse into how Marian Goodman plans to evolve in its next phase, following the death of its eponymous founder in January this year. According to Teng, this includes “expanding” the ways in which it supports its artist stable.
Artists “want opportunities beyond traditional exhibition formats, support for ambitious institutional projects, and gallery relationships that allow their practices to evolve,” Teng told Ocula. She added that this includes the freedom to experiment, to see their work in new contexts, or to be in dialogue with other artists they respect, whether that is historical or contemporary.
“This gallery was built on a commitment to artists, on understanding their individual ambitions and allowing the work to lead,” Teng said. “Bringing Ebony in deepens our commitment to that freedom of experimentation.”
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In a statement, Haynes said it is a “tremendous privilege” to join the gallery at this pivotal moment and that she looks forward to creating “new contexts” for Marion Goodman’s artists and audiences: “I have long admired Marian Goodman Gallery for the thoughtfulness of its programme and, above all, for the depth of its relationships with artists,” she said.
The announcement of Lord and Teng as co-presidents marks a key change in the gallery’s leadership. Alongside continuing partner Leslie Nolan, both were part of the five-person partnership Goodman appointed to lead the gallery in 2021, when she stepped back into the role of chief executive.
Last year, partner Philipp Kaiser left to return to independent curatorial practice, and the gallery has just announced that partner Emily Jane-Kirwan will exit at the end of the month to lead cultural philanthropy projects.
