Andrew Nairne, Director, leaves for senior Arts Council post

10 JUNE 2008

Andrew Nairne, Director of Modern Art Oxford since 2001, has been appointed Executive Director, Arts Strategy, Arts Council England, a position he will take up in September. Modern Art Oxford will be seeking a new Director to enhance its forty-year reputation for presenting pioneering, international, contemporary art exhibitions. In the interim period until a new Director takes up post, Suzanne Cotter, currently Deputy Director and Senior Curator, will be Acting Director.

During Andrew’s seven years at Modern Art Oxford, the Gallery has enhanced both its international and local reputation. Acclaimed exhibitions have included major presentations of work by Tracey Emin, Mike Nelson, Jannis Kounellis, Daniel Buren and the Chapman brothers. More locally, the recent Oxford Open was also widely praised.

Andrew Nairne said:

“I will be very sad to leave Modern Art Oxford. The management team is outstanding and I am grateful to the many artists, individuals and organisations in Oxford, the region, nationally and internationally whom I have been fortunate enough to work with during my time at the Gallery. I am especially proud of the quality of our exhibition programme and of our recently established creative partnerships with three local schools and with the Oxford community of Rose Hill.”

David Isaac, Chairman, Modern Art Oxford said:
"Andrew has achieved a huge amount during his seven years as Director of Modern Art Oxford. As well as maintaining an outstanding national and international programme, he has reminded Oxford how important the visual arts are in building successful communities. His commitment and vision have inspired many artists and visitors to the Gallery."

Note to editors:

Established in 1965, Modern Art Oxford is the largest Gallery in the south east devoted to modern and contemporary art. Working with artists from around the world, our pioneering programme enables audiences and communities to participate in and engage with contemporary art. Our next exhibition, Gary Hume: Door Paintings opens on 15 June 2008. For more information about this exhibition, our future programme and activities please see www.modernartoxford.org.uk. For more information about Arts Council England please see www.artscouncil.org.uk

Contacts
Sara Dewsbery, Press and Marketing Officer, Modern Art Oxford Tel +44 (0)1865 813813 or email sara.dewsbery@modernartoxford.org.uk

Louise Wylie, Director of Media Relations, Arts Council England
 Tel +44 (0)20 7973 5528 / 07912 998 955 or email louise.wylie@artscouncil.org.uk

Press contact

For further press information and images please contact Sara Dewsbery on 01865 813813.


RECENT PRESS QUOTES

Gary Hume
'The doors that unhinged the establishment.'
Alastair Sooke, The Daily Telegraph

'Some forbidding, some strangely inviting.'
Robert Clark, The Guardian

'The Door Paintings aren’t just clever non-paintings, blending the detachment of Pop Art with the rigour of Minimalism…they have powerful presence.'
Tom Lubbock, The Independent

Mircea Cantor/Ansel Adams/Katie Paterson
‘Three fantastic exhibitions.’
Jo Halstead, The Oxford Mail

Mircea Cantor
‘Cantor has a gift for bringing metaphor to life...these overlapping elements – magic carpet, gilded cage, miraculous tree – seem rooted in eastern European fairy tales but separately return you to modern reality.’
Laura Cumming, The Observer

Ansel Adams
‘Widely recognised as the greatest landscape photographer of his century.’
Benjamin Secher, Daily Telegraph

Katie Paterson
‘In an inspired pairing, Paterson shares the exhibition space with the American landscape photographer Ansel Adams…Paterson using modern technology to find the poetry in landscape that Adams captured through his camera lens.’
Tim Cooper, The Sunday Times

Trisha Donnelly
'In a world in which aesthetic comprehension so often relies on comparison and cross-reference Donnelly regularly achieves the rare feat of creating images that simply look like nothing we have ever seen before.'
Jonathan Griffin, Frieze

Stella Vine: paintings
‘Diana and her demons, Kate and cocaine, Jose Mourinho and his dog. Is any subject too raw for this notorious artist?’
Waldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times

‘Every brushstroke threatens disintegration.’
Extract from the catalogue foreword, Mirror, Mirror by Professor Germaine Greer

‘I can’t wait to see her Oxford show – I think she’s the real deal.’
Lynn Barber, The Observer

Seth Price/Kelley Walker/Continuous Project
'Fast, witty, scintillatingly weird.'
Laura Cumming, The Observer

'Three subversive raids on the image banks of global media.'
Robert Clark, The Guardian

Callum Innes: From Memory
'Serenely beautiful paintings by one of of the most accomplished artists working in Britain today.'
Richard Dorment, The Daily Telegraph-Review

'The huge canvases of Callum Innes are so intense, you soon find yourself in a state of meditation.'
Rachel Cooke, The Observer-Review

Daniel Buren: Intervention II, works in situ
‘Daniel Buren's triumphant return to Britain.'
Adrian Searle, The Guardian

'This show makes the case for his position as France's most eminent living artist.'
Jackie Wullschlager, The Financial Times

Arrivals
‘Modern Art Oxford continued its exhilarating programme of international art from Estonia to Istanbul (you saw it here first, it ought to be called).'
Laura Cumming, The Observer: The Year in the Arts 2006

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