Ebony L. Haynes, who has worked at David Zwirner as a director since 2020 and founded the gallery’s affiliated space 52 Walker in 2021, has been named to a newly created role as global head of curatorial projects. In her new post, she will work on special exhibitions, projects, and collaborations with Zwirner’s artists and continue to oversee 52 Walker, which has presented an eclectic range of shows in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
Upon 52 Walker’s opening, Zwirner told the New York Times, of his aspiration to showcase work by Black curators and artists following the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, “While you could argue that strides have been made on the artist side, the art world acts almost shamefully on the employment side. Something has to happen.”
Since opening with a show of work by Kandis Williams in October 2021, 52 Walker has presented 16 shows, with a new one opening tonight. Highlights of the program, which gives shows longer run-times of two or three months, include exhibitions by Nikita Gale, Nora Turato, Tiona Nekkie McClodden, Tau Lewis, Bob Thompson, Arthur Jafa, Sara Cwynar, and Lotus L. Kang, among others.
The space has also mounted conceptually minded duo presentations such as a show pairing Pope. L. with Gordon Matta-Clark and another matching Glenn Ligon with Julius Eastman. The new exhibition opening tonight, running for just two weeks (and thus billed as 52 Walker’s “sixteenth-and-a-half” exhibition), features wrestling-themed drawings by Raymond Pettibon along with two live wrestling matches—on October 3 and 10—in a ring inside the space.
In a statement about Haynes’s new post, David Zwirner said, “I’m excited to have Ebony in this new role, as it is a logical evolution of her work here at the gallery. Seeing Ebony’s Tau Lewis exhibition at our L.A. gallery earlier this year made it clear to me that her program should also be able to be seen by global audiences at our other locations. Closer to home, I am very much looking forward to her Isa Genzken show in Tribeca.”
Haynes herself said, “I’m looking forward to bringing the 52 Walker experience to a broader audience and making even more room for ideas and collaboration with artists and curators across the globe. I’ve always been inspired by David Zwirner’s program and I’m excited at the new ways the programs will continue to lend to one another.”
