Ruba Katrib

Ruba Katrib is a Syrian-American curator of contemporary art. She has served as Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs at MoMA PS1 since 2017. From 2012 until 2017, Katrib was Curator at SculptureCenter in New York. Prior to this post, she worked first as Assistant Curator and then as Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami. She is best known for exhibitions highlighting women artists and global issues.

Early life and education Katrib was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and grew up in Charleston, West Virginia. She is the first US-born child of Syrian immigrant parents.

Katrib holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. In 2002, while a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she co-founded ThreeWalls, a residency and exhibition space.

Career From 2007 until 2012, Katrib worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami as Assistant Curator before being named Associate Curator.

In 2017, Katrib was named Curator at MoMA PS1. She has served on the graduate committee at CCS Bard since 2017.

Katrib has contributed texts for a number of museum catalogues and periodicals including Art in America, Artforum, Cura Magazine, Kaleidoscope, Parkett, and Mousse. Her work is often concerned with diasporic and marginalized discourses in 21st-century artistic practices and the art world generally.

List of Exhibitions

MoMA PS1, New York, 2017 – present

Group exhibitions

Greater New York, 2021 Theater of Operations: The Gulf Wars 1991 - 2011, co-curated with Peter Eleey, 2019

Monographic exhibitions

Jumana Manna: Break, Take, Erase, Tally, 2022

Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life, 2021

Simone Fattal: Works and Days, 2019

Edgar Heap of Birds: Surviving Active Shooter Custer, 2019

Julia Phillips: Failure Detection, 2018

Fernando Palma Rodriguez: In Ixtli in Yollotl, We the People, 2018

SculptureCenter, New York, 2012 – 2017

Group exhibitions

74 million million million tons, co-curated with Lawrence Abu-Hamdan, 2017

The Eccentrics, 2015

Puddle, pothole, portal, co-curated with Camille Henrot, 2014

Better Homes, 2013

A Disagreeable Object, 2012

Monographic exhibitions

Carissa Rodriguez: The Maid, 2018 Kelly Akashi: Long Exposure, 2017 Sam Anderson: The Park, 2017 Teresa Burga: Mano Mal Dibujada, 2017 Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), 2017 Nicola L.: Works, 1968 to the Present, 2017 Charlotte Prodger: Subtotal, 2017 Rochelle Goldberg: The Plastic Thirsty, 2016 Aki Sasamoto: Delicate Cycle, 2016 Cosima von Bonin: Who's Exploiting Who in the Deep Sea?, 2016 Anthea Hamilton: Cigarette Pipes, 2015 Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, 2015 Magali Reus: Spring for a Ground, 2015 Gabriel Sierra: Numbers in a Room, 2015 Michael E. Smith: -, 2015 Erika Verzutti: Swan with Stage, 2015 David Douard: )juicy o'f the nest., 2014 Jumana Manna: Menace of Origins, 2014

Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, 2007 – 2012

Group exhibitions

The Reach of Realism, 2010 Convention, 2009 The Possibility of an Island, 2008 Dark Continents, 2008

Monographic exhibitions

Cory Arcangel: The Sharper Image, 2010 Claire Fontaine: Economies, 2010

Select publications

“Bettina: Photographs and Works by Bettina Grossman.” Aperture, 2022. “Erika Verzutti: The Indiscipline of Sculpture.” KMEC Books/MASP, 2022. Niki de Saint Phalle: Structures for Life. MoMA PS1, 2021. “Neïl Beloufa: People Love War Data & Travels.” After 8 Books, 2021 “Leidy Churchman: Crocodile.” Dancing Foxes, Hessel Museum, Bard College, 2019. “Molecular Sculpture.” Art in America, 2017. “New Methods.” Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, 2013.