Vancouver Art Gallery parts ways with CEO and executive director Anthony Kiendl​on March 25, 2025 at 11:22 pm

The Vancouver Art Gallery confirmed Tuesday that it’s parting ways with CEO Anthony Kiendl amid a period of uncertainty over the future of one of the city’s marquee cultural institutions.

Kiendl, who described himself as “an agent of change and institutional transformation” when he was tapped to lead the VAG just under five years ago, helped navigate through COVID-19. He was at the helm as the gallery prepared to relocate to a new building downtown and then scrapped that plan last year after the project’s budget ballooned by 50 per cent to $600 million.

In January, Kiendl and the chairman of the VAG’s board of trustees, Jon Stovell, announced that the gallery would seek a simpler, less expensive new home, inviting 14 Canadian architectural firms to apply to design the new gallery. The previous building’s design was created by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and unveiled in 2015, five years before Kiendl came to the VAG.

Kiendl’s departure Monday was amicable and the decision was mutual, said Stovell. “He had personal and professional directions he wanted to pursue, and it seemed to us to be an opportune moment to go in different directions.

“We’re not sharing specifics of the internal considerations that were discussed, but it just seemed like the right time for both parties.”

The gallery received a “very positive, strong response” from the architects contacted about the new building, Stovell said, and will review those applications in the coming months.

Despite some members of the public speculating about possible alternative locations for the new gallery, Stovell said the board plans to proceed with the vacant city-owned site at Cambie and Georgia streets downtown.

“Right now, our focus is on that site, and putting a very practical yet still beautiful building on that site,” said Stovell, who is also president and CEO of local real estate development firm Reliance Properties.

In a statement Tuesday, the VAG thanked Kiendl for his “many contributions to the gallery.” Under his leadership, the VAG advanced Indigenous reconciliation, helped secure funding for the gallery’s new home, and grew its donor base, membership and attendance.

Kiendl was born on Long Island in New York, and grew up in Winnipeg. He came to Vancouver from Regina, where he led the Mackenzie Art Gallery, overseeing a nearly 40 per cent increase in attendance under his leadership. He also previously worked at the Banff Centre in Alberta and the Plug-In Gallery in Winnipeg.

Kiendl didn’t immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.

As previously scheduled, Kiendl will serve as curator for an upcoming VAG exhibition called Lucy Raven: Murderers Bar, which opens next month, the gallery said.