David Breslin is a curator of modern and contemporary art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and a former curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in the same city. In September 2022, the Met announced the appointment of Breslin, who will be responsible for leading the institution through a $500 million renovation project for its modern and contemporary art department.
Breslin was at the Whitney Museum from 2016 to 2022, and in 2019 he was appointed as the museum’s first director of curatorial initiatives, working in collaboration with Scott Rothkopf, the senior deputy director and chief curator, to develop the Whitney’s exhibition program and engagement. He was the organiser of the Indigenous Artists Workshop and co-curated both “David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night” and “Quiet as It’s Kept: The 2022 Whitney Biennial”. In addition, he helped to put on “An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017.”
Before working at the Whitney, Breslin was the chief curator at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, Texas, and has also served as the associate curator of contemporary projects at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
In his new role at the Met, he took over from Sheena Wagstaff and began overseeing the renovation of the museum’s modern and contemporary galleries, named the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing. He will work alongside Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, the first woman to design a wing at the museum in New York City. The project will create 80,000 square feet of galleries and public space.
“I’m elated to be joining the Met and my new colleagues at this important moment in the museum’s history,” Breslin said, on his appointment. “The Tang Wing will allow the Met to uniquely reimagine and present the entangled histories of modern and contemporary art from around the world.”