Jens Hoffmann is an internationally renowned art curator and director. He has held numerous curatorial and administrative positions at some of the world’s leading museums and galleries, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Jewish Museum in New York, and the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco.
Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1968, Hoffmann moved to San Francisco as a young adult. After studying art history at the University of San Francisco, he began his curatorial career at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1994. He curated numerous exhibitions at SFMOMA, including the “Indian Summer” show in 1997, which featured art from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
In 2005, Hoffmann was appointed director of exhibitions and public programs at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. During his tenure at the ICA, he curated a number of critically acclaimed exhibitions, including “The Unmonumental” in 2007 and “The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas” in 2008. He also organized the first major survey of the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei in Europe, which opened in 2009.
Hoffmann moved to New York in 2010 to become the director of special exhibitions and public programs at the Jewish Museum. He curated a number of important exhibitions at the museum, including “Kitsch! The Art of Bad Taste” in 2011 and “The Arcades: Contemporary Art and Walter Benjamin” in 2012.
In 2013, Hoffmann returned to San Francisco as the director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts at the California College of the Arts. During his tenure at the Wattis Institute, he organized more than 30 critically acclaimed exhibitions, including “The Painter of Modern Life” in 2016 and “The World to Come” in 2017.
In addition to his curatorial and administrative work, Hoffmann is also an accomplished writer. He has authored numerous essays and books on topics related to contemporary art, including “The Studio in the Museum: Art and its Institutions” (2009), “Curating and the Educational Turn” (2011), and “The Exhibitionist: Journal of Contemporary Curatorship” (2012).
In recognition of his contributions to the world of art, Hoffmann was awarded the Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement in 2016. He is currently a
