His research focuses on exhibition studies, aesthetics, and contemporary art history in Central and Eastern Europe after the 1960s. He has received research grants and fellowships from the Erste Foundation, Vienna; the Getty Foundation, Los Angeles; the New Europe College Institute for Advanced Studies, Bucharest; and CNCS-UEFISCDI (Romanian National Research Council). An active writer of art criticism, Nae is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA). His studies have appeared in journals and books published by Routledge, Hatje Cantz, Cambridge Scholars, Verlag fur Moderne Kunst, and Peter Lang Verlag, among others. He participated in the CAA-Getty International Program in 2012.