Zoë Ryan

Zoë Ryan is Daniel W. Dietrich, II Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania. She joined the ICA in November 2020. Prior to this, she was the John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her research explores the sociopolitical impact of the arts on society. Recent exhibitions include In a Cloud, in a Wall, in a Chair: Six Modernists in Mexico at Midcentury (2019) and Past Forward: Architecture and Design at the Art Institute (2017–ongoing). In 2015, she cocurated Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye. In 2014, Ryan was the curator of the second Istanbul Design Biennial, The Future Is Not What It Used To Be. Ryan has taught graduate seminars on curatorial studies and design history and theory at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a member of the Design Trust International Advisory Council, Hong Kong and on the Executive Committee of the International Confederation of Architecture Museums.