Otto M. Urban, Ph.D.,

Otto M. Urban, Ph.D., received a degree in Art and Aesthetics at the Art History department of the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, and in 2000 completed his doctoral studies there. Since the beginning of the 1990s he has devoted himself to Czech and international art from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, especially symbolism and decadence, as well as contemporary art.

During the years 1994-1999 he was on staff at Umění/Art Magazine (Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences). From 1993 to 2013 he lectured on the history of Czech modern art at various academic institutions here and in the USA as a guest lecturer. During 2010-2019 he lectured at the Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) in Prague, and from 2012 to 2016 he headed its Department of Art Theory and History. From 2017 he was the curator and during 2018-2019 the director of the Collection of Nineteenth Century and Classical Modernism at the National Gallery in Prague. 

Since 2020 he is chief curator of DOX Center for Contemporary Art.  He has authored a number of books and monographs and curated group and solo exhibitions.