TORONTO.- The Art Gallery of Ontario has appointed Kitty Scott as its new curator of modern and contemporary art. Scott assumes the curatorial role on Sept. 17, 2012 and will be tasked with expanding the profile of the Gallery’s modern and contemporary art collections for local and international audiences, while planning and organizing major exhibitions.

Currently the director of visual arts at The Banff Centre, Scott is well-known and respected in the museum world with over 20 years of experience. Prior to 2007, she was chief curator at the Serpentine Gallery, London, and curator of contemporary art at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Scott has curated exhibitions of artists including Francis Alÿs, Janet Cardiff, Paul Chan, Peter Doig, Janice Kerbel, Ragnar Kjartansson, Silke Otto-Knapp, Ken Lum, Frances Stark, and Ron Terada, and is a core agent for this year’s dOCUMENTA (13), in Kassel, Germany.

“Kitty posses a depth and range of experience in both Canadian and international contexts,” explained Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO’s director and CEO. “Her expertise will help us put Canadian artists on the global stage, bring the best of contemporary art to our city and present our prized collection in dynamic new ways.”

As an independent curator, Scott has organized exhibitions including Bankside Browser (2000) for Tate Modern, London, and Universal Pictures (1999) at the Melbourne International Biennial. She was the Canadian coordinator for the Seventh International Istanbul Biennial (2001) and also worked on the inaugural SITE Santa Fe Biennial (1995). She is visiting professor for the Curatorial Practice Program at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, as well as an adjunct professor at York University, Toronto, and University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

“I am very pleased that Kitty will be joining the AGO,” said Elizabeth Smith, the AGO’s executive director of curatorial affairs. “She brings a deep knowledge of contemporary art and leading-edge approaches to curatorial practice that will greatly benefit our work at the Gallery.”

Scott has written extensively on contemporary art for catalogues and journals including Parachute, Parkett, Mousse, and Canadian Art. She has contributed to numerous books on curatorial studies and written texts for monographic publications on the work of Matthew Barney, Peter Doig, Brian Jungen, Raymond Pettibon, and Daniel Richter; and for the publication Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture (Phaidon, London, New York, 2010).

“It is a true pleasure to be joining the outstanding team at the Art Gallery of Ontario, with its established record of exhibitions, collecting, and scholarship in modern and contemporary art,” said Scott. “In the coming months I look forward to creating a plan for connecting the best work being created today in Canada and around the world with the extraordinarily rich legacy of the 20th century in the Gallery’s permanent collections.”

The AGO’s collection of modern and contemporary art comprises more than 3,300 works spanning from 1960 to the present, reflecting global developments in artistic practice across all media, including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, video, and installation art.