SAMA Collections: Curatorial Staff

David S. Rubin joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2006 as The Brown Foundation Curator of Contemporary Art. 

From 2000-2006, Rubin served as Curator of Visual Arts at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans.  From 1994-99, he was Curator of 20th Century Art at Phoenix Art Museum.  Prior positions include Associate Director/Chief Curator at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art (1990-94), Director of the Freedman Gallery at Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania (1986-90), Director of Exhibitions at the San Francisco Art Institute and Adjunct Curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1983-85), Director of Santa Monica College Art Gallery  (1982-83), and Assistant Director of the Galleries of the Claremont Colleges/Assistant Professor of Art History at Scripps College (1977-82).  Since 1980, Rubin has been a member of the International Association of Art Critics.  Throughout the 1980s, he was a frequent contributor to Arts and Art in America.  In 1996, Rubin served as U.S. Commissioner for the Cuenca Bienal of Painting in Ecuador.  Since 2001, he has been an international juror for the Florence Biennale. During his tenure at the Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Rubin organized numerous exhibitions, including Photography Now, an international survey of contemporary photography; Chelsea Rising, the first survey exhibition ever of the artists who exhibit in the galleries of New York City’s Chelsea arts district; Expanding Universe: The Recent Paintings of Al Held, new work by an American master, Digital Louisiana, a statewide survey of works employing computer technology; Baby-Boom Daydreams: The Art of Douglas Bourgeois, a traveling survey exhibition and book on the work of a distinguished Louisiana artist; Birdspace: A Post-Audubon Artists Aviary, a traveling exhibition about contemporary artists whose work deals with bird imagery and culture; Nouveau Techno: New Media Installations by Sylvie Blocher, Claude Closky, and Matthieu Laurette; Tomer Ganihar: Raving in the Desert; Raw Data: Conceptual Art in Louisiana;  The Culture of Queer: A Tribute to J.B. Harter; and Celebrating Freedom: The Art of Willie Birch.  Rubin holds an M.A. in Art History from Harvard University and an A.B. in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles.