Emily Liebert

Contemporary Art

Curator of Contemporary Art

Emily Liebert is curator of contemporary art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA). Her current and forthcoming projects include Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior (2024–25; cocurated with Ainsley M. Cameron), which premiered at the Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel in Venice as a Collateral Event of the 60th Venice Biennale, as well as a retrospective of Martin Puryear (2025–26; cocurated with Reto Thüring) and Emma Amos: The Gift (2027). 

Since joining the CMA in 2017, Liebert has curated and cocurated exhibitions by Nicole Eisenman, Liu Wei, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Raúl de Nieves, and Laura Owens, as well as the group exhibition Picturing Motherhood Now. She has expanded the CMA’s contemporary collection through acquisitions by a diverse and global range of artists, featured in her reinstallation of the museum’s contemporary galleries. Before the CMA, Liebert held positions at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Liebert’s art criticism has appeared in Artforum and Frieze. She holds a BA from Yale University and a PhD from Columbia University. She was a Fellow in the Center for Curatorial Leadership’s 2023 class.

Contact the Curator at: ContemporaryArt@clevelandart.org