The Princeton University Art Museum has announced the appointment of Jun Nakamura as assistant curator of prints and drawings. Nakamura joins the museum from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he was the Suzanne Andrée Curatorial Fellow in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. He began his appointment at Princeton on February 20.

At Princeton, Nakamura will work with the museum’s extensive collections of more than 15,000 prints and drawings, comprising European, British, Latin American, and North American works from the 15th century to the present. In addition to organizing exhibitions and gallery installations, Nakamura will initiate scholarly and public programs, grow the collections, and cultivate new supporters.

“Jun brings to the museum an unusually wide range of expertise and interests, from 17th-century Dutch art to 20th-century American printmaking, to the techniques of printmaking themselves, affording a rare combination of depth and breadth,” said James Steward, the Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director. “We’re thrilled to have him join our museum as we prepare for the launch of our new building and the first years of exhibitions and collections installations.”

At the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nakamura embraced an array of projects, including the boundary-crossing exhibition “Macho Men: Hypermasculinity in Dutch and American Prints” (2022–23), which draws on the institution’s rich holdings of Dutch mannerist and 1930s American prints. Prior to his work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nakamura served as a Kress Foundation Institutional Fellow at Leiden University in The Netherlands, where he supported the university’s efforts to advance the history, conservation, and appreciation of European art. He was also previously a curatorial intern at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

Nakamura earned a Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of Michigan (2022), specializing in early modern Dutch art and the history of printmaking. His dissertation explored the meaning and application of standardized engraving styles in the 17th-century Netherlands and beyond. Other fields of interest include the histories of science, technology, and transoceanic exchange. He earned an master’s degree in art history from Southern Methodist University, and a bachelor’s in fashion design and art history from Washington University in St. Louis.

“I am honored to be joining the Princeton University Art Museum team at such an exciting time for the Museum,” Nakamura said. “I’m really looking forward to getting to know its remarkable collections, and I’m excited about all the possibilities for collaboration with truly wonderful colleagues within the Museum, across the University, and beyond.”   

For more information, visit artmuseum.princeton.edu.