MOCA senior curator Alma Ruiz to retire

Alma Ruiz, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s longtime senior curator, is retiring from the institution after 31 years.

It is unclear when Ruiz will leave, but she will continue to work on the Magdalena Fernández exhibition that opens at the museum’s Pacific Design Center location in the fall.

“I am extremely grateful for Alma’s deep commitment to MOCA,” museum Director Philippe Vergne told The Times. “She leaves a profound mark on the history of this institution and is much loved by the many artists she worked with over the years.”

MOCA wrote on its Facebook page that “Alma’s commitment to Latin American artists positioned MOCA as an early leader in both collecting and exhibiting artists from the region and has made an indelible and important mark on our history.”

During her tenure at MOCA, Ruiz curated exhibitions by artists Ernesto Neto, William Kentridge, Ana Mendieta, Carlos Garaicoa, Piero Manzoni and Ad Reinhardt, among others, as well as exhibitions from the museum’s permanent collection.

Some of her most defining exhibitions, according to MOCA, include: “The Experimental Exercise of Freedom: Lygia Clark, Gego, Mathias Goeritz, Hélio Oiticica, and Mira Schendel (1999)”; “Gabriel Orozco (2000)”; “Poetics of the Handmade (2007)”; “Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color, and Space (2010)”; “Jacob Hashimoto: Gas Giant (2014).”

Ruiz will continue her curatorial career post-MOCA, pursuing independent projects.

Twitter: @debvankin