Sirmans ’91 Joins Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Franklin Sirmans ’91 has been appointed department head and curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He is currently curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection in Houston and will move on to his new position in January. AT LACMA, he will oversee a department that focuses on works created since 1968 and will work on strengthening the museum’s publication program.

Besides being a curator, Sirmans is a critic, editor and writer. His curatorial credits include organizing NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith, an examination of spirituality in contemporary art that traveled from the Menil to P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York. He co-curated a show of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting that was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. For the exhibition Face Off, Sirmans selected a wide variety of human faces in prints, sculptures, and paintings from the Menil Collection.