Spaniard named as new Tate Modern boss

Todoli, 43, is currently Director of the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, Portugal. He succeeds Tate Modern's launch director Lars Nittve who left last year to return to his native Sweden.

Vicente Todoli's career in the visual arts spans 20 years, and includes positions such as the former Chief Curator and then Artistic Director of IVAM in Valencia, before joining the Museu Serralves as its founding Director in 1996. He has been actively involved with many other international art institutions including the ICA Amsterdam and the Reina Sofia National Museum of Art in Madrid where he was a member of the Advisory Committees of both museums.

Throughout his career he has organised and curated internationally renowned exhibitions of work by contemporary artists, such as John Baldessari, James Rosenquist, Richard Tuttle, Tony Cragg, Juan Muñoz, Julião Sarmento and Pedro Cabrita Reis. At the Museu Serralves, he has curated exhibitions of James Lee Byars, Franz West, Gary Hill, Hamish Fulton, Lothar Baumgarten, Roni Horn, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. He is currently preparing exhibitions on the work of Richard Hamilton/Dieter Roth and Francis Bacon.

Vicente Todoli said: "Tate Modern has been one of the great successes of the last five years and has changed the London art scene forever. Having had the privilege of setting up and opening the Serralves Museum in Porto, architecturally one of the most important new museums in Europe, I look forward to the challenge of taking Tate Modern forward into the next decade. I am fortunate to be joining such a dynamic team and look forward to working closely with Tate staff.

Tate Director Nicholas Serota said: "It is really exciting that we have been able to attract a director of such evident talent and distinction. Vicente Todoli has run one of the most successful new contemporary art museums to have opened in Europe in the last five years and his appointment demonstrates that today's artworld is truly international.

Vicente Todoli takes up his position early next year but from this July he will come over each month to work closely with Tate staff and be involved in decision making.

• The Guardian's Adrian Searle on why Todoli is the right man for the job