Johan Lundh is a Swedish museum director, curator, writer, and translator working internationally. Together with Canadian museum director, curator and writer Aileen Burns, Lundh is currently Co-Executive Director and CEO of Remai Modern, a new museum of modern and contemporary art in Saskatoon, Canada.
Their arrival at Remai Modern in 2020 coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a new layer of challenges to their role as they simultaneously worked to build momentum for the then three year old museum. Along with their team, Burns and Lundh stewarded the move to by-donation admission model at Remai Modern. After acknowledging, through extensive public consultation, that there were real and perceived barriers to visiting the museum, often due to cost, they secured a $10-million commitment from lead patron Mrs. Ellen Remai to support this change.
At Remai Modern, Burns and Lundh have curated exhibitions and projects with Céline Condorelli (France/UK), Christine Sun Kim (USA/Germany), Kapwani Kiwanga (Canada/France) with November Paynter, and Lucy Raven (USA). Christine Sun Kim and Kapwani Kiwanga’s exhibitions were listed as top ten shows around the world in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Between 2019 and 2020, Burns and Lundh were Co-Directors/Chief Curators of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Aotearoa New Zealand. Burns and Lundh led the museum through a restructure and growth, and worked with artists Ruth Buchanan (Aotearoa New Zealand/Germany), Candice Lin (USA), and Heague Yang (Korea/Germany) on major exhibitions.
From 2014 to 2019, Burns and Lundh were Co-Directors of the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), the leading independent art space in Brisbane, Australia. At the IMA, Burns and Lundh focused on commissioning new works and organised major solo exhibitions with artists such as Gordon Bennett (Australia); Nicholas Mangan (Australia); Luke Willis Thompson (Fiji/Aotearoa New Zealand); P Staff (UK/USA); Slavs and Tatars (Eurasia), Hito Steyerl (Germany), and Heague Yang (Korea/Germany). Through the IMA, they have also co-produced Richard Bell’s (Australia) Embassy for Performa 15, performance art biennial in New York City, USA.
Between 2011 and 2014, Burns and Lundh were Co-Directors of the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) in Derry, Northern Ireland. They curated solo shows with Sarah Browne (Ireland), Goldin+Senneby (Sweden), Jesse Jones (Ireland), among others. At CCA, they also organized the first Curatorial Intensive in Europe with the Independent Curators International, From ‘Official History’ to Underrepresented Narratives, and were part of the curatorial team for the 2013 Turner Prize.
Lundh’s writing and translations has appeared in periodicals such as Art-Agenda; Mousse; Kunstkritikk, as well as books and exhibition catalogues. He has lectured extensively across Europe, North America, and Australia including CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson; Goldsmiths – University of London; and Monash University, Melbourne.
Lundh is member of the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art (CIMAM), the Canada Art Museum Directors Organization (CAMDO), the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT), and the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).
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