Ng, a Canadian who was promoted to chief curator in November, joined the Frick in 2015 and has had a prominent role in its transformation ever since. When the museum\u2019s Fifth Avenue mansion temporarily closed for a major expansion project, she jointly curated the collection\u2019s takeover of the Breuer building and then its reinstallation back home three years later.<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, Ng cohosted Cocktails with a Curator, the Frick\u2019s wildly popular video series featuring art history lessons and drink recipes that ran for 65 episodes. \u201cThey were challenging because you\u2019re giving a 20-minute lecture, but we didn\u2019t have access to our libraries,\u201d she says. \u201cThe other thing is, I live in a small apartment with a husband and two kids, so I would be recording at midnight\u2014or 10 A.M. if I kicked them out of the house to go to the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Embracing challenge: Accustomed to overseeing shows of centuries-old artists, she helped mount a well-received exhibition of Black contemporary artist Barkley L. Hendricks in September 2023. \u201cIt was kind of like being on vacation,\u201d says Ng, a onetime painter herself. \u201cNot that it wasn\u2019t work, but it offered the chance to imagine this alternate reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defining stewardship: \u201cOur number one mission is to preserve the works of art, but that also means preserving them in culture,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re making sure that people come with an interest in understanding human history through old things.\u201d <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t![\"Smiling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2025-01-17_Ortuzar_Suzanne_Jackson_18_Photo_Steven_Probert-575x767.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe artist in her
\nstudio in Saint Remy,
\nNew York, with
\n\u00bfWhat Feeds Us?
\n(2024\u201325).
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: STEVEN PROBERT, COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND ORTUZAR, NEW YORK<\/p>\n
Suzanne Jackson<\/p>\n
When the netting Suzanne Jackson<\/a> hung around her peach tree in Savannah<\/a>, Georgia, in the late 1990s failed to stave off the squirrels and possums, she brought the material into her studio. Soon she began to experiment with it, applying acrylic paint and hoisting it into the air, calling on her familiarity with scrims and pulleys from her years as a theater set designer. It was the first of what would become an acclaimed series of luminous painting-sculpture hybrids that incorporate found materials and dispense with the canvas.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were saying painting was dead during the \u201980s, and my whole idea was, What can I do?\u201d says Jackson. \u201cPainting<\/a> is not dead. It\u2019s just that painting is really hard, and a lot of folks are really kind of lazy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jackson is anything but. At 82, she has never been busier. This past spring, she embarked on a monthlong residency in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>, then brought her acclaimed traveling retrospective, \u201cWhat Is Love,\u201d to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. The show\u2014which debuted at the San Francisco Museum of Art last fall\u2014opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in September.<\/p>\n Her art-world stardom has been a long time coming. After studying painting at San Francisco State University, she worked as a ballet dancer, actor, and teacher while making dreamy, translucent abstract paintings. In 1968, she transformed her live-work studio in Los Angeles into Gallery 32, an exhibition space for other up-and-coming Black creatives. She also published two volumes of poetry before heading to Yale for graduate school at age 44. Eventually, she began teaching art at the Savannah College of Art and Design and really hit her stride. She made her New York solo debut at 75 and was a star of the Whitney Biennial five years later.<\/p>\n Artistic overlap: \u201cTo me, there\u2019s no separation between food, dance, painting, poetry, music,\u201d says Jackson of her expansive outlook.<\/p>\n Up next: The artist shows no signs of slowing down. Currently, a construction crew is installing drywall in her new studio in Savannah, and she has her sights set on publishing more writing. \u201cI just watched Betye Saar, at 100 years old, dancing. That\u2019s what I think when I look at women artists, like Louise Bourgeois<\/a> and Howardena Pindell: Women just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tBonnie Brennan.\t\t\t<\/p>\n Bonnie Brennan <\/p>\n One day in 1987, Bonnie Brennan\u2019s dad was driving her to school in the Detroit suburbs when a news story came on the radio about a sale at Sotheby\u2019s: Someone had paid $53.9 million for Vincent van Gogh<\/a>\u2019s Irises\u2014a staggering price at the time and the record for an artwork sold in competitive bidding. \u201cI remember thinking, Wow, what an amazing job!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Just over 37 years later\u2014in February 2025\u2014Brennan was named CEO of Christie\u2019s<\/a>, the first woman to occupy the corner office on a full-time basis. This past spring, under her watch, the house celebrated a trifecta of milestones of its own, selling Jackson Pollock<\/a>\u2019s Number 7A, 1948 for $181.2 million; Constantin Brancusi\u2019s Dana\u00efde for $107.6 million; and Mark Rothko<\/a>\u2019s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) for $98.4 million\u2014all artist records and a potent signal that the recent market slump may be ending.<\/p>\n \u201cGreat works will always find buyers,\u201d says Brennan, whose job is to ensure that Christie\u2019s has both in abundance. \u201cOne of my goals is to make sure that we demystify the auction process and welcome the greatest number of people in.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a time when Brennan did not see a viable career path in the art world. Graduating from Northwestern University with a double major in art history and marketing and communications, she went into advertising, writing new-business proposals. She joined Sotheby\u2019s a few years later and rose through the ranks. After a leadership shake-up in 2012, Brennan jumped to Christie\u2019s. One of her favorite aspects of the job is the breadth of categories that pass through the salesroom\u2014from Old Masters to pop culture memorabilia. \u201cIn this business,\u201d she says, \u201cyou get to be a student every day.\u201d<\/p>\n On diversity: \u201cThe scope of contemporary art keeps growing. We want to give voice to female artists, artists of color, underrepresented artists. We\u2019re trying to listen to what the market wants.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSana Rezwan with Sana Rezwan<\/p>\n Sana Rezwan was dividing her time between New York City<\/a> and Jaipur, India, collecting South Asian women artists and sitting on the boards of art institutions, when she had an idea. Art Production Fund, one of the organizations she worked with, commissioned projects in unorthodox locales, such as Prada Marfa<\/a>, Elmgreen & Dragset\u2019s satirical faux storefront on a lonely stretch of desert road in Texas. Why couldn\u2019t contemporary art be brought to India\u2019s ancient public squares?<\/p>\n Rezwan soon launched Jaipur<\/a> Art Week\u2014which held its fifth edition last winter\u2014followed by a similar seven-day program in Jodhpur. \u201cThe city becomes a venue, as opposed to a museum or a gallery, and that\u2019s really exciting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n A belief that art should be democratic is at the heart of the festivals, so events are free and nearly always open to all. \u201cIt\u2019s about building culture and making it for everyone,\u201d says Rezwan of the two programs, which will merge in January to become Site Jodhpur, a seven-week presentation.<\/p>\n Although Rezwan dreamed of being an artist, she forged a career in fashion before earning a master\u2019s at Sotheby\u2019s Institute of Art and fi nding her way back to the art world. Part of her mission is to build respect for cultural pursuits in her homeland, so she established the Public Arts Trust of India, which off ers education, mentorship, and training to young talents in skills such as proposal writing and conducting studio visits. \u201cMy name is not on it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a vanity project.\u201d<\/p>\n On perseverance: \u201cI would go to auctions as a young girl and raise my paddle, and I was advised never to put it down until I won the lot.\u201d <\/p>\n What\u2019s next: \u201cI have a vision of building a little museum and a gallery space as well as art and learning centers.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tTrino Verkade at Trino Verkade<\/p>\n Alexander McQueen<\/a> was synonymous with artistry in fashion. The renowned couturier sent women down the runway wearing antlers and programmed robotic arms to spray-paint model Shalom Harlow\u2019s dress in one particularly unforgettable show. Trino Verkade was employee number one\u2014and helped bring many of his wildest brainstorms to fruition. Now, 16 years after McQueen\u2019s death, she is keeping his spirit of experimentation alive via the Sarabande Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea is very much to support artists, so they don\u2019t have to compromise their creativity,\u201d says Verkade. \u201cThere are always two things that we say every artist has: a unique vision and a dedication to their craft.\u201d<\/p>\n McQueen, who grew up working class and was fiercely anti-elitist, left most of his estate to Sarabande but revealed little about his wishes other than his desire to fund scholarships. Under CEO Verkade, the foundation provides need-based aid to students at London\u2019s Slade School of Fine Art and Central Saint Martins. It also rents studio space in its buildings for a price per square foot that\u2019s significantly below market rate. Last year, it received some 800 applications for 32 spots.<\/p>\n Sarabande defines creativity broadly, considering candidates from a wide array of fields, from fashion and jewelry to fine art, dance, and filmmaking\u2014and those who resist being siloed. \u201cThat was very much the \u201990s\u2014we all mixed together,\u201d says Verkade.<\/p>\n Next up: In a major undertaking, she and her team at the foundation\u2019s gallery, House of Bandits, are curating the art program at the St. Regis London, which is slated to open in Mayfair<\/a> this fall. Roughly 80 Sarabande creators are producing more than a thousand works for the hotel\u2019s guest rooms and public spaces: There\u2019s a suit jacket by Olubiyi Thomas; crushed, painted cans by Lucy Jagger; carved and gilded flowers by Jo Grogan; and paintings sewn with seeds by Beverley Duckworth.<\/p>\n Ongoing commitment: Verkade is also building community. Funding recipients are welcome to access exhibition space and advice in perpetuity. As Verkade says, \u201conce a Sarabande artist, always a Sarabande artist.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\tVirginia Shore at the Virginia Shore<\/p>\n When the Obama Presidential Center<\/a> opened on the South Side of Chicago in June, its campus was dramatically punctuated with 28 commissions from 30 artists, the only contemporary art program of its kind at a presidential library. The woman behind the epic undertaking: curator and art adviser Virginia Shore<\/a>. After joining the project in early 2019, she devoted seven years to the institution, which includes works by such luminaries as Maya Lin<\/a>, Martin Puryear, Theaster Gates<\/a>, and Mark Bradford<\/a>. The result, according to Shore, is beyond a typical presidential archive or museum dedicated to one man. \u201cThis is a cultural hub,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Shore built her reputation at the State Department\u2019s Art in Embassies program, which she joined as an intern. Rising to chief curator and acting director, she gained invaluable experience developing site-specific installations and bringing exhibitions to U.S. outposts all over the world. Her 25-year career there coincided with an embassy building boom, giving her the opportunity to collaborate with architects and engineers, which came in handy, for instance, when she suggested turning what was intended to be a plain window on the Obama Center\u2019s northern fa\u00e7ade into an artwork. \u201cI feel very comfortable looking at architecture and thinking outside the box about how to take over spaces and infuse them with art,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bonnie_Brennan_LK_2_075-575x767.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Sana-Rezwan-575x949.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\nVoice of the Blue, an
\ninstallation at 2025
\nJodhpur Arts Week.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: COURTESY OF THE PUBLIC ARTS TRUST OF INDIA<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/251030_STS_Sarabande_092jpg-JS1037977638-575x835.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\nthe Sarabande
\nFoundation in London.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: KATE WARREN<\/p>\n![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5_Virginia-Shore_Photo-by-Kate-Warren-1174x783.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\nNational Gallery of Arts
\nin Washington, D.C.,
\nwith a work by
\nRachel Whiteread.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: LESLEY LAU\/THE SUNDAY TIMES STYLE MAGAZINE\/NEWS LICENSING<\/p>\n