MCASD CEO Kathryn Kanjo leaving to head UC Irvine museum expansion

Kathryn Kanjo, a 15-year veteran of The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego who led its recent expansion, is leaving her position as CEO to head UC Irvine’s growing museum operations.

In September, the university acquired the Orange County Museum of Art, a new 53,000-square-foot facility in Costa Mesa, which it will manage in addition to the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art in Irvine.

“Kathryn’s vision, dedication, and vast knowledge of contemporary art have shaped MCASD in profound and lasting ways,” said Maryanne Pfister, president of the board of trustees, on Tuesday. “We are grateful for her years of service and wish her great success in her new role at UC Irvine.”

In San Diego, Kanjo supervised the expansion and renovation of the museum by New York-based Selldorf Architects, completing a major period of growth that quadrupled gallery space.

Since MCASD reopened in 2022, some notable exhibitions include “Niki de Saint Phalle in the 1960s” — which featured numerous works that were displayed in the United States for the first time — and “For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability” — the first exhibition to survey themes of illness and impairment in American art from the 1960s up to the COVID-19 era.

Some noteworthy acquisitions under her leadership include works by Teresita Fernandez, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Hunt, Yayoi Kusama, Maya Lin, Morris Louis, Mark Rothko and Cecelia Vicuña.

Kanjo joined the museum as chief curator in 2010 and was appointed CEO in 2016. At UC Irvine, she will be director of the combined UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. Her last day at MCASD will be Jan. 30.

MCASD said its board has formed a selection committee to launch a national search for the next CEO over the coming months.