introxpert

Matthew Israel is a curator, writer, and Ph.D. art historian and was most recently Commissions Lead at Open Arts at Meta.

Throughout his career, Matthew has helped leading international organizations create world-class art exhibitions, programming, and editorial content, both on- and offline. Matthew believes in the power of great art and artists; sophisticated and engaging writing; forward-thinking digital initiatives and the potential of art and technology collaborations; data-informed decision-making; long-term strategic planning; and nuanced connections between the art world and the wider world.

Matthew joined Meta in the summer of 2021 to help “define the future of art” at the company. From December 2021 through February 2023, as Commissions Lead (akin to a chief curator role) at Open Arts, Matthew managed six dynamic curators located around the world. His team commissioned spectacular large-scale physical artworks for Meta’s offices, working with an incredibly diverse range of artists. Matthew’s team also supported art and tech collaborations with an array of Meta product teams (working in VR, AR, AI, and with NFTs).

Between 2019 and 2021, Matthew was Co-Founder and Chief Curator of Artful, a company focused on contemporary art travel. Between 2011 and 2019, Matthew was the founding Director of The Art Genome Project at Artsy and later was Artsy’s Head Curator.

Matthew is the author of three critically-acclaimed books on contemporary art: "Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War" (2013); "The Big Picture: Contemporary Art in 10 Works by 10 Artists" (2017); and "A Year in the Art World: An Insider’s View" (2020), which will be released in paperback in July 2023.

IX Nomination 2024/IX Sessions to be released soon!