Alexandra Libby joined the National Gallery of Art as assistant curator of northern Baroque paintings in 2014. She is now curator and acting head of northern European paintings and senior administrator for curatorial and conservation initiatives.

In her curatorial roles, Libby has curated and cocurated Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Painting from the Dutch Golden Age (2018) and Vermeer’s Secrets (2022). She also cocurated Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World (2025), a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the National Gallery and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History that brought specimens into conversation with 16th- and 17th-century European art.

Prior to joining the museum as a curator, Libby was a Samuel H. Kress Fellow and a University of Maryland Museum Fellow at the National Gallery. She was also assistant curator of European art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida.

Libby holds a PhD from the University of Maryland, an MA from Boston University, and a BA from Colby College, all in art history.