Zoë Ryan

Zoë Ryan is the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. A curator and author, her projects focus on exploring the impact of architecture and design on society. Her recent exhibitions include, In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury (2019) and Past Forward: Architecture and Design at the Art Institute, a major installation of the modern and contemporary architecture and design collections (2017–ongoing). In 2017, she published As Seen: Exhibitions that Made Architecture and Design History, the first volume to explore in depth the important role that exhibitions have played in the history of these fields of practice.

Her past exhibitions include: Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye (2015), Fashioning the Object: Bless, Boudicca, and Sandra Backlund (2012), and Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention (2011). In 2014, she was the curator of the second Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be. Ryan has taught graduate seminars on design history and theory at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a member of the Design Trust International Advisory Council, Hong Kong. 

Articles Related to Zoë Ryan

2013-11-07

CCL Announces 2014 Fellows

The Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) named its 2014 class of Fellows, recognizing twelve art museum curators with a track record of exceptional work and the potential for even more significant contributions as future leaders in the field. This is the seventh class of CCL Fellows and the largest to date with individuals ... Read More >

2016-10-11

Curatorial Chat | Eva Respini on rethinking the promise of a ‘contemporary’ collection

  Eva Respini began as the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) in March 2015. Since then, she has been mounting an ambitious program of temporary exhibitions alongside installations drawn from the ICA’s growing permanent collection. Respini’s current exhibition, First Light: A Decade of Collecting ... Read More >

2018-04-30

Curatorial Chat | Zoë Ryan at the helm of the Art Institute’s architecture and design department

Zoë Ryan joined the Art Institute of Chicago in 2006 as the inaugural Neville Bryan Curator of Design, and in 2011 was named chair of the Department of Architecture and Design. Ryan’s tenure marked an expanded scope for the museum and its collection with the introduction of design to the ... Read More >

2020-01-02

Catherine Futter (CCL 2014) Named Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum

Catherine Futter (CCL 2014) has been named Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum. Futter joins the Brooklyn Museum from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art where she has been a member of the curatorial staff since 2002, first as the Helen Jane and R. Hugh “Pat” Uhlmann Curator ... Read More >

2020-08-25

Zoë Ryan (CCL 2014) named Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania

Zoë Ryan (CCL 2014) has been named Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania.  Zoë will join the ICA in November following 14 years at the Art Institute of Chicago, most recently serving as the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design. A curator ... Read More >