The University of Texas at Austin (UT) has appointed Max Fields as the new director of its Visual Arts Center (VAC). Mr. Fields joins the organization following MacKenzie Stevens’s departure in August 2023.
Max Fields
In a press release, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Dean of UT’s College of Fine Arts, said, “We’re thrilled to welcome Max Fields to help us write the next chapter of the Visual Art Center’s story. With his deep curatorial experiences at renowned institutions in Texas and beyond, he’s the perfect candidate to build upon the successes of the center and continue to elevate its profile.”
Mr. Fields holds an MA in Curatorial Studies from Bard College and a BS in Photography from Texas A&M-Commerce. Most recently he has served as the Curator and Director of Publishing for FotoFest, a nonprofit organization in Houston founded by Frederick Baldwin, Wendy Watriss, and Petra Benteler. Prior to joining FotoFest, Mr. Fields held curatorial and administrative positions at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts at the University of Houston, the Institute for Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. He was one of the co-founders of Suplex Projects, which organized exhibitions and events in Houston in the early-to-mid 2010s.
Throughout his career, Mr. Fields has curated, co-curated, and organized over 30 exhibitions, including the 2022 FotoFest Biennial, If I Had a Hammer, with Steven Evans and Amy Sadao, the 2021 Texas Biennial exhibition In Place of an Index with Ryan Dennis and Evan Garza, and Gareth Long: Kidnappers Foil at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. Exhibitions he has curated have been reviewed in various publications, including The New York Times, Artforum, Frieze, Art in America, Mousse Magazine, The Guardian, Aperture and Texas Monthly.
Regarding his appointment at VAC, Mr. Fields remarked, “I’m honored to be appointed director of the Visual Arts Center at The University of Texas at Austin. With its unique capacity to present exhibitions featuring artists from around the globe in tandem with student-organized and faculty-supported projects, the center represents a critical space for experimentation in education and contemporary art.”
According to Mr. Fields, he has begun discussions with VAC’s staff and advisory group about plans to expand on the institution’s programming to present unique and collaborative projects connecting UT with local and global audiences.
Mr. Fields will step into his new role on Monday, April 8.
