Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of MACBA, will step down at the beginning of April, ahead of her contract’s original expiration date in late July. The move concludes a tense dialogue with the MACBA Consortium, which had ruled that her appointment as director of the forthcoming Abu Dhabi Public Art Biennial conflicted with her duties at the Barcelona museum.
Dyangani Ose succeeded Ferran Barenblit as director in 2021, becoming the first woman and the first person of color to lead the contemporary art institution. Born in Córdoba in 1974 to a family from Equatorial Guinea, she trained as an art historian at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Cornell University in New York.
She held tenures at the Atlantic Center of Modern Art in Las Palmas (CAAM) and the Andalusian Center of Contemporary Art (CAAC) before joining the Tate Modern in 2011, where she worked with the African Acquisitions Committee. Her departure from MACBA coincides with the museum’s 30th anniversary and the closing of the exhibition “Projecting a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Pan-Africa,” which she curated. She will assume her new role in Abu Dhabi in October.
According to El País, Dyangani Ose sent a letter on Monday to the MACBA staff informing them of her early resignation and the events that led to it. She reportedly told the governing body that she would not participate in the public search for the museum’s next artistic director, while announcing her job offer at the Abu Dhabi Art Biennial. Dyangani Ose said she intended to complete her term and asked to balance both duties, a request that was reportedly denied.
Speaking to MACBA staff, Dyangani Ose cited a “commitment to transparency regarding the decisions made in recent months and following yesterday’s unexpected article”—a reference to a report in the Spanish-language publication La Vanguardia announcing the Consortium’s decision.
She acknowledged that “it has been an honor and a great responsibility to lead the MACBA, although not always easy,” and thanked the roughly 100-person museum team, as well as everyone who had “made it possible to develop a project committed to art, critical thinking, and contemporary issues.”
ARTnews has contacted MACBA for comment.
