REDCAT gallery names director

CalArts has named New York-based curator and writer Eungie Joo director of the 3,000-square-foot gallery at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater.

Joo, 34, who recently curated shows at New York’s Deitch Projects and Hartford, Conn.’s Real Art Ways, is teaching two classes at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. She earned a doctorate at UC Berkeley in ethnic studies.

Joo also co-curated a show, which runs through July 13, called “Time After Time: Asia and Our Moment” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

“I think the REDCAT space is so exciting,” she said Friday. “I wasn’t looking for a day job, really. I was curious about the space, more than anything. It’s a great size and obviously a great location.”

Although the gallery will include work from Los Angeles and CalArts, it won’t be restricted to either. “There’s a hope that we can promote the intellectual integrity of CalArts,” she said, not just to showcase student or faculty work.

“We’re interested in California artists, but we’re also interested in a California-centric take on world art,” Joo said. “Our direct neighbors here, and our population, are really different from New York. So it will probably include the Pacific Rim and Mexico, Central America and South America, since they’re so important to us here in California.”

Joo will work with Thomas Lawson, dean of the university’s school of art, and Mark Murphy, executive director of REDCAT.