Director Michael Brand to Step Down From AGNSW

Art Gallery of New South Wales Sydney Follow +

Dr Michael Brand today announced that he will step down from his position as director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney in July 2025.

Dr Brand joined the Gallery in 2012 as its ninth director. Under his tenure, the AGNSW acquired works by Yolŋu artists from Yirrkala, staged major exhibitions on Rembrandt, Matisse, and Louise Bourgeois, and inaugurated the Contemporary Project series for emerging and mid-career artists, among countless other activities.

He also oversaw the AU $344 million dollar Sydney Modern Project, which was unveiled in 2013 and completed in 2022. The expanded art museum received over two million visitors, a record, in its first year of operation. Among the most notable features of the project is a repurposed World War Two naval fuel tank, which has hosted major commissions by Adrián Villar Rojas and Angelica Mesiti.

‘This ambitious project is what called me back to Australia so my decision to step down next year follows much reflection,’ Brand said. ‘As we are now building on the success of the Sydney Modern transformation, it feels like the right time to transition to a new generation of leadership for the next exciting chapter in the history of our 153-year-old art museum.’

President of the Board of Trustees, David Gonski, said the search for a new director would commence soon.A scholar of Indian and Islamic art, architecture, and landscape design, Dr Brand began his career as curator of Asian art at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Prior to AGNSW, he led the Aga Khan Museum during its construction in Toronto and, before that, was director of the J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. —[O]

Main image: Dr Michael Brand. Photo: Hugh Stewart.