Dan Byers

Dan Byers

John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director at Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts
Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies
Dan Byers

Dan Byers is a curator of contemporary art with a current focus on commissioning new work with living artists. In addition to leading the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, the center for contemporary art at Harvard University, he teaches curatorial studies in the Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies (AFVS). He is Co-Chair (with Tracy K. Smith) of the Harvard & The Legacy of Slavery Memorial Project and Chair of the FAS Committee on Visual Culture and Signage. His recent projects at the Carpenter Center include exhibitions with Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Pope.L, Morgan Bassichis (with the ICA at Virginia Commonwealth University), B. Ingrid Olson, Candice Lin (with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis), Deidrick Brackens and Katherine Bradford, Tony Cokes (with Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in London and ARGOS in Brussels), Jonathan Berger (with PARTICIPANT, INC in New York), Anna Oppermann, Liz Magor (with the Renaissance Society at University of Chicago), and Renée Green. Previously, he was Mannion Family Senior Curator at the ICA/Boston, where he organized solo exhibitions featuring Diane Simpson, Geoffrey Farmer, and Steve McQueen, and group exhibitions The Artist’s Museum and the 2017 Foster Prize Exhibition. Before moving to Boston, Byers was Richard Armstrong Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art and co-curator, with Daniel Baumann and Tina Kukielski, of the 2013 Carnegie International. In addition to overseeing the Carnegie’s acquisitions of modern and contemporary art, he worked closely with artists Cathy Wilkes and Ragnar Kjartansson to present their first US solo museum exhibitions. Byers was Curator of the Icelandic Pavilion at 60th Venice Biennale featuring artist Hildigunur Birgisdottir, Chair of the 2019 Curatorial Leadership Summit at the Armory Show, and co-organizer (with Ruba Katrib) of Why New Forms, Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies 20th anniversary conference. Earlier in his career, Byers held positions at The Fabric Workshop and Museum and the Walker Art Center. He holds an M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, and a B.S. in Studio Art from Skidmore College.

Contact Information

p: (617) 496-2933