Canadian/Columbian curator, Juan A. Gaitán, is the latest to make an important list of international curatorial talent. The KW Institute for Contemporary Art announced today his appointment as curator of the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art.

An independent writer and curator, Gaitán trained as an artist and art historian at University of British Columbia and Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. He recently staged the group show, "Models for Taking Part," at the Justina M. Barnicke. He was on the Board of Directors of Vancouver's landmark artist-run center, Western Front Society, has worked as external curator at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and published in Canadian critical publication, Fillip. 

More recently, Gaitán has been curating at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam (the Netherlands), and teaching at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. He now splits his time between Mexico City and Berlin.

Since the first edition in 1998, the Berlin Biennale has become a major international event for contemporary art. Located in the midst of Berlin's vibrant cultural scene in the fast-changing capital of Germany, the Berlin Biennale has received an enthusiastic response from the audience as an experimental, forward-looking and contextual show. The previous seven editions of the Berlin Biennale explored a variety of exhibition formats and involved diverse curatorial agendas. They have been led by A-list curators such as Klaus Biesenbach, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, Artur Żmijewski, and Nancy Specter.

The 8th edition will be exhibited in spring of 2014.