BIO

Daniel Birnbaum is a Swedish art critic, theoretician, curator, and the former Director of Moderna Museet, Stockholm. He is the Artistic Director of Acute Art, London, an organization which provides artists with access to cutting-edge technologies. In the past, Birnbaum has held positions as an art critic at Dagens Nyheter, Director of IASPIS (The International Artists Studio Program in Stockholm), and Director of Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main, where he also presided over the art academy’s exhibition site. He was co-curator of the international section at the Venice Biennale (2003) and the Artistic Director of the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). Birnbaum worked as co-curator of the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2005 and 2007) and was a member of the jury for the Turner Prize (2008). He co-founded the Zero Foundation, Düsseldorf, and in 2010, became the Director of Moderna Museet. He has established a reputation for showing key artists early in their careers. Since 2003, Birnbaum has been editor, alongside Isabelle Graw, of the Institut für Kunstkritik series. He is a contributing editor of Artforum, and has written extensively on art and philosophy for magazines including Parkett and Frieze. Birnbaum is an adjunct member of the board and special advisor for international programs at the Hilma af Klint Foundation. He co-curated Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen at the Serpentine Galleries, London (2016), and Hilma af Klint: Possible Worlds at Pinacoteca, São Paulo (2018).