Jonas van Kappel, MA

Curriculum vitae and duties

Jonas van Kappel (he/him) is an interdisciplinary art historian, Dutch language and culture scholar and, since 2024, Junior Curator of 21st-century art at the RKD. He graduated cum laude in Dutch Language & Culture (BA) and Art History (BA) from the University of Amsterdam, with specialisations in gender and queer studies and multi-sensory art perception. In 2022 he left for Sweden to pursue an MA in Curating Art at Stockholm University, where he worked as a curator with various contemporary art institutions, such as Index - The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Accelerator, Frihamnstorget and Nobel Week Lights, Stockholm's light art festival. He also contributed to the development of a new sculpture park and the relocation of public artworks in Kiruna, Sweden's northernmost municipality.

His master's thesis was the result of a policy research project in the Exhibitions & Collections Department at Moderna Museet. This thesis, Diversifying a Museum Collection and the Politics of Representation (2024), stemmed from the museum's mission to diversify its collection and combined both qualitative and quantitative methods. The research resulted in concrete reflections on the cultural diversity and gender representation of artists in the museum's acquisitions. As an intern, he also wrote label texts and conducted research for exhibitions, including Seven Rooms and a Garden: Rashid Johnson and The Moderna Museet Collection (30-09-2023 - 22-09-2024).
 

Publications

• ‘From Image to Smell: The Role of the Olfactory Sense in Contemporary Art Experience’, Stedelijk Studies [online essay] (2023).
• ‘Een blik in een gitzwarte tunnel: Multi-zintuiglijkheid en Collectief Trauma in Tania Bruguera’s Untitled (Havana, 2000)’, Simulacrum 30, 3 (2022), pp. 20-26.