On Wednesday, the Dallas Contemporary issued a press release announcing that Executive Director Peter Doroshenko will leave his position after his contract ends in 2022. The release came a week after the job search for a new executive director appeared on LinkedIn, which, as Jerome Weeks points out on Art and Seek, is a little odd. But then, the Dallas Contemporary during Doroshenko’s ten-plus years as chief has been no stranger to controversial or confusing communications.
Doroshenko ushered in a new era at the Contemporary, helping to realize its ambition to grow from a local arts space into an art institution with an international focus and reach. He hired ambitious curators, supported shows that engaged with important conversations in the contemporary art world, increased the budget fivefold, and expanded education and community outreach programing, including added extensive bilingual learning programs. Doroshenko also pushed buttons. His stoic, unflappable demeanor belied a raffish, iconoclastic style that seized upon opportunities to toy with Dallas society’s prudish sensibilities and flaunt the boundaries of good taste.
His style and populist inclinations sometimes made Doroshenko the target of criticism—and not always for his artistic choices. Early in his tenure, it was revealed that the Contemporary was selling off artwork donated by local artists on eBay at prices drastically lower than the artists’ market value. Earlier this year, there was uproar after two employees were let go from the museum after allegedly urging the Contemporary to make a public statement against hate crimes after the mass shooting of Asian women in Atlanta. Two weeks after the employees were let go, the Contemporary issued a statement on Instagram that was criticized as “insincere.”
But Doroshenko undoubtedly raised the profile of the institution he was brought in to lead into a new era. He attracted big art world names, from the celebrity street artist Shepard Fairey to blue chip painters like Richard Phillips, Eric Fischl, and Yoshitomi Nara. In 2017, Doroshenko was chosen, along with assistant curator Lilia Kudelia, to organize the Ukraine pavilion at the Venice Biennale. And he collaborated with both established curators like Pedro Alonzo and helped to launch the careers of new voices, like Justine Ludwig, who left the Dallas Contemporary in 2018 to become the executive director of Creative Time.
When he began with the Contemporary, Doroshenko inherited a large, unwieldly art space in the Design District, a former glass factory that had industrial charm but nevertheless proved difficult to program. Cavernous spaces, subpar lighting, and a lack of wall space influenced the decision to stage big, flashy shows accompanied by raucous opening parties. But Doroshenko also found ways to create intimate artistic experiences within the building as well as push the institution’s mission outside its walls and into the wider city, sponsoring mural commissions throughout Dallas.
The Dallas Contemporary traces its roots back to a small artist-run art space on Swiss Ave. that opened in 1978. After it moved into its new building and hired Doroshenko from the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, it was clear that the Contemporary’s board desired to remake the local arts organization into an institution with an international scope. After 11 years, Doroshenko undoubtedly succeeded in that, while also creating a space for Dallas that is provocative, ambitious, controversial, and never boring.
Here’s the full release:
Peter Doroshenko To Step Down as Executive Director of Dallas Contemporary
Leader Brought Museum to International Prominence During 11-Year Run
27 October, 2021 (Dallas, TX) – After eleven transformative years at the helm of Dallas Contemporary, Peter Doroshenko is stepping down from his position as executive director. He will continue to serve as director until his contract ends in May 2022.
“After over a decade at Dallas Contemporary, I will be pursuing new opportunities when my contract comes to a close in May 2022,” said Doroshenko. “I am very proud of the work I have done over the past years. It has been an honor to work with so many inspiring artists, partners and colleagues and I very much look forward to seeing the continued success of an institution I have helped shape.”
During his tenure, Doroshenko positioned Dallas Contemporary as a preeminent voice in the discourse of international contemporary arts; he initiated a complete building renovation of the 37,000 sq ft space where the museum is located; greatly expanded its cutting-edge, bi-lingual, learning programs and digital presence; as well as grew the budget fivefold.
Doroshenko organized the first institutional exhibitions of several now well-known artists such as Rob Pruitt, Jennifer Rubell, Richard Phillips, Dan Colen, Enoc Perez, Yelena Yemchuk and Tomoo Gokita. During his directorship the institution staged blockbuster exhibitions by seminal international artists including Georg Herold, Adriana Varejão, Ghada Amer, Paola Pivi, Eric Fischl, John Currin, Boris Mikhailov, Jessica Vaughn, Jose Dávila, Liu Xiaodong, Yoshimoto Nara, Shilpa Gupta, Peter Halley, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov.
“Dallas Contemporary is eternally grateful to Peter Doroshenko for his vision, doggedness and fearlessness in elevating the stature and programming of this institution through his spectacular exhibitions of international artists, his promotion of Texas artists and his constant engagement with the Dallas community. He built today’s Dallas Contemporary, and we wish him well in the future,” said John Sughrue, chairman of the museum’s board of directors.
Mr. Doroshenko joined Dallas Contemporary in 2010 from the Pinchuk Art Center in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he was the president and artistic director. Prior to that, he held directorship positions at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst-SMAK, Ghent, Belgium; and the Institute of Visual Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. From 1991 to 1995, he was the curator of the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston. In 2017, he was commissioner for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. A search for his replacement at Dallas Contemporary is underway.
