Brook Andrew is a renowned Australian artist and curator of Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal (Australian Indigenous) heritage whose practice centres Indigenous knowledge systems and challenges colonial narratives. He works across installation, video, and performance, often incorporating the Wiradjuri language and research-based interventions in museums and public spaces. Brook has exhibited internationally, with major projects including the Liverpool and Sharjah Biennials, Kunsthalle Wien, MASP, and Gropius Bau. As Artistic Director of the 22nd Biennale of Sydney (NIRIN), he led a landmark First Nations-curated event. Brook is Director of Reimagining Museums and Collections at the University of Melbourne and founder of BLAK C.O.R.E, a First Nations research collective. He is also Adjunct Curator at Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and Artistic Associate at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

“It was challenging to select three artists from the large number of artists I was presented with. Like many creatives around the world, the young artists in the region are investing their efforts and turning their gaze on excavating their present, dealing with urgent matters of our time, be they environmental, social and/or historical issues. I very much look forward to working with the three selected artists, Alla Abdunabi, Maktoum Al Maktoum and Salmah Almansoori, and to guiding their visual voices, as well as developing a body of work in response to and inspired by Al-Ain as a source and as a canvas for new ideas.” - Issam Kourbaj, Curator, Beyond Emerging Artists 2025

The artists he is guiding in Abu Dhabi Art’s Beyond Emerging Artists program will exhibit their works at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Al Jahili Fort, Jebel Hafit, and Al Ain Oasis, before being shown internationally.

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Issam Kourbaj comes from a background of fine art, architecture and theatre design. He was born in Syria and trained at the Institute of Fine Arts in Damascus, the Repin Institute of Fine Arts & Architecture in Leningrad (St Petersburg) and at Wimbledon School of Art (London). Since 1990, he has lived and worked in Cambridge, eventually becoming an Artist in Residence at Christ’s College, a Bye-Fellow (2007-2011) and a Lector in Art.

In 2009, as part of Cambridge University’s celebration of its 800th anniversary, Issam was invited to design the sets for the play Let Newton Be! and for a contemporary dance piece Light Matters, which was presented in the University Senate House. His Cambridge Palimpsest, a puzzle box linking time and archaeology, was also published by Cambridge University Press as part of the celebrations and was presented to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during their first official visit to Cambridge.

He is interested in collaborating with other creative science and humanity disciplines and has produced work using different forms of Camerae obscurae, inspired by Ibn Al-Haytham’s work on optics.

His work has been widely exhibited, collected, and exhibited in several museums around the world: Fitzwilliam Museum, Classical Archaeology Museum and Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Wereldmuseum (formerly Tropenmuseum), Amsterdam; Penn Museum, Philadelphia; Brooklyn Museum, New York, among others.

His Dark Water, Burning World is in the permanent collection of the Pergamon Museum, San Diego Museum of Art and the British Museum. For the BBC’s ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects,’ Neil MacGregor (the former director of the British Museum) chose it as the 101st object.

Image is courtesy Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge

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This page was last updated in October 2025.

Tola Akerele is the CEO of the National Theatre and an award-winning interior designer and founder of IDesign, a studio and workshop dedicated to innovative, functional, and afro-modern design. With over two decades of experience, she sits on the board of the Interior Designers Association of Nigeria and has built a reputation for blending creativity with craftsmanship, She’s also the Founder of Soto Gallery and +234Art Fair and the Author of Orishirishi Cookbook.

With over 20 years of experience in the contemporary art world, Doris Benhalegua Karako has built a career focusing on communications and engagement with artists, galleries, and international institutions. A graduate of Bilgi University (2000), Doris began her career at IMAGE under Betül Mardin, gaining valuable experience in global brand communications. In 2006, Doris transitioned into the art world by joining GALERIST (galerist.com.tr), where she had the opportunity to learn and grow for nearly two decades. During her time at the gallery, she collaborated with a talented team to shape its strategic direction. As Gallery Director for the last 10 years, she curated annual exhibition programs, built meaningful relationships with contemporary artists—both those under representation and through project-based initiatives—and engaged with collectors, museums, institutions, and curators locally and internationally. Her team’s efforts focused on promoting Turkish artists globally and fostering cross-cultural understanding through the arts. Now based in Amsterdam, Doris continues her work as an independent consultant and art advisor. She is passionate about developing creative projects, fostering cross-cultural collaborations, and supporting contemporary artists in ways that encourage new dialogues and perspectives. Doris remains deeply committed to the growth and exchange of ideas within the global art community.

Harvard and Oxford educated, Roxane Zand began a career in the arts at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, subsequently moving to the UK to work in the non-profit arts sector. She has served a variety of institutions such as the British Museum and Asia House, joining Sotheby’s in 2006 to lead its presence in the Middle East & Gulf. In March 2020 she left Sotheby’s as Senior Director and Deputy Chairman to start her own consultancy. She continues to sit on a number of MENA Boards, including AFAC, and advises the non-profit sector. 

 

Her most recent book was Geometry and Art in the Modern Middle East. She was appointed a Representative Deputy Lord Lieutenant (DL) by Her Majesty the Queen for her services to Middle Eastern art. She is also Arts Editor for the Encyclopoedia Islamica.

 

Roxane Zand is the gallery representative for the gallery sector Focus: Collector’s Salon, Abu Dhabi Art 2024 and 2025. 

 

Instagram: @roxzand

Odessa Warren is a Lebanese-British curator and researcher based in London. Her work focuses on transnational art histories, in particular modern and contemporary art from the Arab world and beyond. She recently curated and convened the multidisciplinary artistic programme War-Torn Ecologies: Resistant Worlds with Beirut Art Center and The Mosaic Rooms. Previously, she curated artist Dala Nasser’s first UK solo exhibition entitled Time Spent Without its Flow. She was a 2024 resident in the Art, Writing, Practice programme at Banff International Curatorial Institute. She is currently Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she works on exhibitions, live programmes and collection research. She has extensive experience organising and delivering major international public programmes, having collaborated with institutions in Mexico City, Cape Town, Tokyo, Gwangju and Paris among others. She has previously worked with Beirut Art Centre, The Palestinian Museum and Forensic Architecture. She holds degrees from University College London and Goldsmiths University.

Carine Harmand is a curator who focuses on transnational discourses in art history, with expertise in modern and contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, West Asia and Latin America. Currently working as The John Ellerman Foundation Curator at Tate Liverpool, Harmand is developing an art programme across Tate and the International Slavery Museum. She has curated the solo exhibition of South African artist Zanele Muholi at Tate Modern in 2024. Another part of her practice focuses on sustainable art and institutional practices and climate justice; she has curated You Get a Car [Everybody Gets a Car] a project with RESOLVE Collective at Tate Liverpool which effectively redistributes resources in the creative sector. Harmand has worked previously as Assistant Curator of International Art at Tate Modern in London, and in a curatorial capacity in Cameroon, Mozambique and South Africa. She holds an MA from the Ecole du Louvre, Paris, and an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art History and Theory from the University of Essex.

Lorenzo Fiaschi co-founded Galleria Continua with Mario Cristiani and Maurizio Rigillo in San Gimignano in 1990, aiming to showcase contemporary art in rural areas. Galleria Continua was the first foreign gallery with an international program to open in Beijing in 2004 and launched Les Moulins in the Parisian countryside in 2007. In 2015, Lorenzo and the other founders opened a space in La Habana, Cuba. For the gallery’s 30th anniversary in 2020, new spaces were opened in Rome at St. Regis Rome and in São Paulo, Brazil. In January 2021, a new exhibition space was inaugurated in Paris, and a gallery opened inside the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.
Lorenzo has overseen the gallery’s projects, participated in art fair commissions, and contributed to publishing books and catalogues. He co-organized the Arte all’Arte festival (1996-2005), enabling 80 international artists to create in situ works in Tuscany. Today, Lorenzo is the president of ITALICS, a consortium of over sixty influential Italian galleries, founded with Pepi Marchetti Franchi in spring 2020.

For over two decades, Myrna Ayad has authored, edited, and contributed to several books, magazines and dailies on visual art and culture from the Arab world and Iran. A frequent panellist, jurist, and moderator, her role as an independent cultural strategist allows her to work on projects within the luxury sector, government entities, private companies, and non-profit organisations. Based in the UAE for over four decades, Ayad is a graduate of the American University in Dubai and lives in Dubai with her husband and two children. 

Harvard and Oxford educated, Roxane Zand began a career in the arts at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, subsequently moving to the UK to work in the non-profit arts sector. She has served a variety of institutions such as the British Museum and Asia House, joining Sotheby’s in 2006 to lead its presence in the Middle East & Gulf. 

In March 2020 she left Sotheby’s as Senior Director and Deputy Chairman to start her own consultancy. She continues to sit on a number of MENA Boards, AFAC, and advises the non-profit sector. Her most recent book was Geometry and Art in the Modern Middle East. She was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant (DL) by Her Majesty the Queen for her services to Middle Eastern art. She is also a charity auctioneer. She is also Arts Editor for the Encyclopoedia Islamica.

Roxane Zand is the gallery representative for the gallery sector Focus: Collector’s Salon, Abu Dhabi Art 2024.

Instagram: @roxzand

Elvira Eevr Djaltchinova-Malec is an art practitioner with over thirty years of experience.
She studied aesthetics, art history and cultural anthropology at university, following which she taught history of Asian art and architecture, aesthetics, semiotics and history of philosophy at the University of Warsaw. She has also worked as a curator at the Asia-Pacific Museum in Warsaw and the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw.
She is the founder and president of the Warsaw Institute for Modern and Contemporary Asian Art Foundation named after Nejad Devrim.
Since 2017, she has organised annual international meetings of collectors of Asian art through the GAAB Collectors Summit.
She is currently working on a documentary about the life and work of Turkish artist Nejad Devrim.

Venetia Porter was Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East art at the British Museum (1989-2022) where she is now Honorary Research Fellow. She studied Arabic and Persian and Islamic Art at the University of Oxford, and her PhD from the University of Durham is on the history and architecture of Medieval Yemen. She was the lead curator for the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World, opened 2018. Her research and publications range from Islamic tiles, Yemeni history, Arabic inscriptions and amulets to contemporary art, and include her mother’s autobiography Thea Porter’s scrapbook which she edited (Unicorn Press, 2019). Her exhibitions include Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (London 2006, Dubai 2008), Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam (2012), Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa (2021) and Amakin, 21,39 Jeddah Arts, 9th edition, (Jeddah and Dahran 2022). Artists making books: poetry to politics, published by British Museum Press will be out in August 2023 and accompanies an exhibition at the British Museum which is on until the end of 2023.

Morad Montazami (France, 1981) is an art historian, publisher and curator. After working at the Tate Modern (London) between 2014 and 2019 as a curator for the Middle East and North Africa, he developed the publishing and curatorial platform Zamân Books & Curating, exploring Arab, African and Asian modernities. He has written numerous essays on artists such as Zineb Sedira, Walid Raad, Latif Al Ani, Faouzi Laatiris, Michael Rakowitz, Mehdi Moutashar, Behjat Sadr... and curated exhibitions including Baghdad Mon Amour, Institut des cultures d’Islam (Paris, 2018); Monaco-Alexandria: The Great Detour. World-capitals and Cosmopolitan Surrealism, Nouveau musée national de Monaco (2021-2022); Casablanca Art School. Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde, Tate St-Ives/Sharjah Art Foundation/Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (2023-2024

Morad Montazami, director of Zamân Books & Curating, and currently resident of the Villa Medicis in Rome (Italy) is the curator for Beyond Emerging Artists, Abu Dhabi Art 2023

Chris Wan Feng is a Hong Kong-based writer and independent curator with a research focus on the locality and art ecosystem of greater China, especially the Hong Kong region, leading to exhibitions like “A Collection in Two Acts” (Rossi & Rossi, 2022) and “Residual Heat” (Axel Vervoordt, 2021), among others. His recent curatorial project “Blue Throat” initiated dialogues on identity, diaspora, and displacement, spinning off exhibitions such as “Blue Throat: A Profound Disruption” (Singapore JW Projects, 2023) and “Blue Throat: Start the Churning” (Art Central Hong Kong, 2023). In 2023, he was invited to curate a public programme in Art Central Hong Kong. Chris has been contributing to many art journals and mass media, including Artforum and Initium Media. He is also the founder and editor of Daoju (www.daoju.art), a not-for-profit art writing project with a focus on the Hong Kong contemporary art scene.

Essia Hamdi was initiated into the profession of antique dealing by one of the pioneers of the School of Tunis, Ali Bellagha. Hamdi opened her first gallery, Atyqa (translating to "antique"), dedicated to the exhibition and sale of the antique objects that she had collected. This first experience as a gallery owner and antique dealer paved the way for her to promote works of art of all kinds and saw her become a significant figure in the art market. The Atyqa space has since become a showcase for Islamic art and antiques, a museum for local artistic heritage in Tunisia.

It was a meeting with one of the leaders of the New Realist movement, Arman, that would see the Atyqa gallery branch out to modern and even contemporary art. The gallery Le Violon Bleu, whose very door was designed by Arman, opened in 2003 and was to host seminal exhibitions of modern and contemporary art over the years in Sidi Bou Said.

From there, exhibitions of modern artists from the entire MENA region followed, for which Hamdi has become a reference and a specialist. Le Violin Bleu has participated in art fairs across the region and been responsible for the acquisition of Tunisian, Moroccan, Egyptian and Algerian painters by renowned museums such as The Guggenheim (Abu Dhabi and New York) and the V&A, London.

Maneli Keykavoussi is an independent curator and art consultant with a diverse background in the art world. Previously, she held the position of head of the Middle East markets at The Fine Art Fund Group, a global investment firm headquartered in London, and worked as a consultant for Sotheby's Middle Eastern sales.

As the founder of the Farideh Lashai Foundation, a public foundation based in Basel, Switzerland, Keykavoussi is dedicated to preserving the artistic legacy of her mother, the renowned artist, writer, and translator Farideh Lashai, while also promoting art from Iran and West Asia. The foundation has successfully collaborated on and supported major retrospectives of Lashai's work at prestigious institutions such as the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sharjah Art Foundation, and exhibitions like "Eyewitness: Francisco Goya & Farideh Lashai" at the Museum of Fine Art, Ghent, "La Obra Invitada: Farideh Lashai" at the Prado Museum in Madrid, and "On Violence and Beauty: Reflections on War" at The British Museum in London.

Keykavoussi’s educational background includes a masters in Public International Law and International Political Economy of Art from Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva. She holds an LL.M. from Harvard Law School with a focus on Postmodern Legal Theory and Postmodern Art, and an M.A. in Intellectual Property Law from the University of Turin. She is a member of the Arts Council of Farhang Foundation in Los Angeles, where she is based, and the New York State Bar.

Riccarda Mandrini began her career as a journalist specialising in international modern and contemporary art. She moved from fashion, architecture and then to the art market field, collaborating for several years with arteconomy24, the art market supplement of the Italian economic and financial newspaper Il sole 24 ore.

Her deep interest in the art market has led her to work with established Italian and international art fairs, where she has taken on various roles from Head of the Talks Programme to Galleries and Art Collectors Representative. She has contributed essays to the publication “Enciclopedia Treccani d’Arte Contemporanea”. She is also a frequent contributor to the art magazine “Art e Dossier”. Mandrini is a visiting professor at Cattolica University in Milan where she teaches the master’s in Art Management.

Dr. Omar Kholeif aka Dr. O is an author of prose and poetry, a historian of the academy and its peripheries, and a curator of vanquished and/or suppressed archives. Dr. Kholeif has worked as a broadcaster, filmmaker, editor, publisher, and a museum director in South Africa, Great Britain, the United States, the GCC and Northern Africa. Over the last two decades, Dr. Kholeif’s work has concentrated on the nature of networked image culture and its relationship to intersectional questions in the field. Dr. Kholeif has curated 65+ exhibitions of visual art across five continents, and has authored, co-authored, or edited over 40 books, which have been translated into 12 languages. Dr. Kholeif was co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, is the founding director of www.artpost21.com and is Curator of FORUM at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Dr. Kholeif currently serves as Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. Kholeif’s forthcoming monograph, Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs is published by Phaidon in 2023.

The portrait is courtesy of BLAKE GALLACHER

Sam Samiee is a painter, essayist, and psychoanalyst in training based in Berlin and Tehran. He finished Rijksakademie residency in 2015. His painting education took place at the Art University of Tehran and ArtEZ AKI in the Netherlands, where he was later a painting lecturer until 2019. He synthesises studio practice and research in art history and Persian literary history in his art, writing, and curatorial research. His research focuses on global modernist movements in 19th and 20th century Iranian visual arts in relation to the concept of Adab. Samiee is a jury member of the Dutch Royal Painting Prize (2020 to 2024). In 2016 he was among the winners of the same prize. He has exhibited at the 10th Berlin Biennale, Kunstmuseum the Hague, Manchester Art Gallery, and Kunstinstituute Melly. Since 2013 he has curated shows at W139 artist-run space, Dastan's Basement, and Art Dubai.

Sam Samiee is the curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2022 “Farideh Lashai” Exhibition.

Rachida Triki is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics at the University of Tunis, and a writer and curator, based in Tunisia. She is a founding member of the Tunisian Association of Aesthetics. She was a member of the Arts Committee of the Mahres Festival (Tunisia 1998 - 2002). She has organized several exhibitions in Tunisia including as Curator for North Africa for the seminal exhibition "Contact Zone" (National Museum of Mali, Bamako, 2007), curator for North Africa for Dak’Art 2010, the 9th Biennale of Contemporary African Art, Dakar and curator of the Tunisian Dakar Biennale exhibition in 2018. She has written several catalog texts on Tunisian and Maghrebian artists and organized international meetings on contemporary issues of creation. She has published several books about aesthetics and has also co-produced for Tunisian television over twenty medium-length films on Tunisian painters in their studio.

Rachida Triki is the curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2022 gallery sector “Focus: New Tomorrows”.

Jade Yesim Turanli, born in Istanbul in 1971 and now based in London, has established herself as a key figure in the art world and has been instrumental in Istanbul’s art scene as a leading international gallerist over the past two decades. In April 1998, Turanli opened Pi Artworks on the fifth floor of a building in the Ortakoy district of Istanbul. Pi Artworks later moved to Tophane, and then to Piyalepasa, with the latest premises featuring a 250 sq mt exhibition space. A second gallery space in central London was set up by Turanli in September 2013, its programme of exhibitions expanding to include international artists such as Susan Hefuna, Michael Rakowitz, Gulay Semercioglu, Mehmet Ali Uysal and Fatma Bucak. Turanli is a member of AWITA in London (Women in the Arts Association) and the selection committee of Contemporary Istanbul.

Jade Yesim Turanli is a curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2022 gallery sector.

Riccarda started her career as a journalist for Domus, then moved to the Condé Nast magazine, Uomo Vogue. Following her time at Uomo Vogue she moved to arteconomy24, the art market supplement of “Il Sole 24 Ore”. Riccarda’s deep interest in the art market led to partnerships with Arte Fiera Bologna and Art Verona, and she finally moved to Investec Cape Town Art Fair, where she worked as Galleries & Art Collectors Representative for the last four years.

Riccarda is a visiting professor both at Cattolica University (Milano) and Pavia University, dealing with Art Management Masters. She has contributed to many essays and to the publication of the new edition of “Enciclopedia Treccani d’Arte Contemporanea”. She is also a frequent contributor of the art magazine “Art e Dossier”.

Riccarda Mandrini is a curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2022 gallery sector.

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are Founders of Art Reoriented, a multidisciplinary curatorial platform launched in 2009 in New York and Munich. They are curators of the Lyon Biennale in 2022, and affiliate curators at Gropius Bau in Berlin.  
As an independent voice, Bardaouil and Fellrath have collaborated with more than 70 institutions worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Tate Liverpool, Moderna Museet, Reina Sofia, ARTER, and the Montblanc Cultural Foundation. They are internationally recognised curators and award-winning authors whose practice is rooted in global Contemporary art, as well as in the field of Modernist studies. 
In 2016 they were part of the team of curatorial attachés of the 20th Biennale of Sydney. At the Venice Biennale, they were curators of the National Pavilions of Lebanon in 2013 and the United Arab Emirates in 2019, and they are curators of the French Pavilion in 2022.  

Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath are co-curators for Beyond: Emerging Artists, Abu Dhabi Art 2021

Instagram: @sbardaouil and @till.fellrath
Facebook: sbardaouil and till.fellrath
Hashtags: #artreoriented #samandtill #sambardaouil #tillfellrath

Rose Lejeune is a London-based curator and researcher focused on creating sustainable, cross-sector mechanisms to support the production and collection of contemporary art across the whole range of materials and mediums that artists today use.

In addition to regular writing and public speaking on these topics, she is currently working towards Performance Exchange, a UK-wide project working to embed performance within collections, and highlight the work commercial galleries do to support artists across the spectrum of contemporary art materials and practices. Rose is also the Associate Curator for the Delfina Foundation’s Collecting as Practice programme where she developed the groundbreaking programme that looks at the politics and economics of global collections.

Rose’s current curatorial activities have developed following a decade of experience working with public organisations throughout the UK and in particular working closely with artists to commission for non-gallery situations. This includes as Curator for Art on the Underground, and Education Projects Curator at the Serpentine Gallery. Rose holds a BA in Philosophy and Art History, and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. Finally, Rose is currently a PhD candidate in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where her research focuses on curatorial frameworks for performance art in, and out, of the art market.

Rose Lejeune is Curator of performing arts programme “In the Round”, Abu Dhabi Art 2021.

 

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic and novelist. Njami was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He has served as the Artistic Director of the first Johannesburg art fair in 2008, the Bamako photography biennale for 10 years, and the Dak’art Biennale (2018/2018). He also co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004/2007) and the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008; The Divine Comedy (2013), at the MMK (Museum fur Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt; SCAD, Savannah (2014) and The Smithsonian in Washington DC (2015); Xenopolis in Berlin (2015); Afriques Capitales in Paris and Lille (2017); and Metropolis Maxxi (2018). He was member of the scientific boards of numerous museums and a visiting professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1998, he created the Pan-African master classes in photography, with the Goethe Institut, which he then directed for more than 12 years. Njami also set up the collection of contemporary art for the Memorial Acte museum in Guadeloupe. He has published and edited numerous books, with the latest being Stories Histories: The Story of Revue Noire (2020). Njami studied literature, law and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Simon Njami is Curator of the gallery sector “Kind of Blue” at Abu Dhabi Art 2021.

Born in Beirut, currently lives in Oxford, UK.

Maya El-Khalil is an independent curator, who for the last decade has been working locally, regionally and internationally with artists, collectors and institutions to develop the identity and ideas that have defined the contemporary art scene in Saudi Arabia. From its inception in 2009 until 2016, she was the Founding Director of Athr, a leading contemporary art gallery based in Jeddah. She is the curator of the 7th Edition of 21,39 Jeddah Arts.

El Khalil holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the American University of Beirut. She is currently enrolled in an MA Program in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths University.

Maya El-Khalil is Curator of the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Maya El-Khalil is also speaking at the Talk: Beyond: Emerging Artists

 

Harvard and Oxford educated, Roxane Zand began a career in the arts at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, subsequently moving to the UK to work in the non-profit arts sector. She has served a variety of institutions such as the British Museum and Asia House, joining Sotheby’s in 2006 to lead its presence in the Middle East & Gulf. 

In March 2020 she left Sotheby’s as Senior Director and Deputy Chairman to start her own consultancy. She continues to sit on a number of MENA Boards, AFAC, Aga Khan Museum UK Steering Committee, and advises the non-profit sector. Her most recent book was Geometry and Art in the Modern Middle East. She was appointed Deputy Lord Lieutenant (DL) by Her Majesty the Queen for her services to Middle Eastern art. She is also a charity auctioneer. 

Instagram: @roxzand

Rose Lejeune is a London-based curator and researcher focused on creating sustainable, cross-sector mechanisms to support the production and collection of contemporary art across the whole range of materials and mediums that artists today use.

In addition to regular writing and public speaking on these topics, she is currently working towards Performance Exchange, a UK-wide project working to embed performance within collections, and highlight the work commercial galleries do to support artists across the spectrum of contemporary art materials and practices. Rose is also the Associate Curator for the Delfina Foundation’s Collecting as Practice programme where she developed the groundbreaking programme that looks at the politics and economics of global collections.

Rose’s current curatorial activities have developed following a decade of experience working with public organisations throughout the UK and in particular working closely with artists to commission for non-gallery situations. This includes as Curator for Art on the Underground, and Education Projects Curator at the Serpentine Gallery. Rose holds a BA in Philosophy and Art History, and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. Finally, Rose is currently a PhD candidate in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where her research focuses on curatorial frameworks for performance art in, and out, of the art market.

Rose Lejeune is Curator of performing arts programme “In the Round”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Rose Lejeune is also speaking at the Talk: "In the Round"

 

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic and novelist. Njami was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He has served as the Artistic Director of the first Johannesburg art fair in 2008, the Bamako photography biennale for 10 years, and the Dak’art Biennale (2018/2018). He also co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004/2007) and the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008; The Divine Comedy (2013), at the MMK (Museum fur Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt; SCAD, Savannah (2014) and The Smithsonian in Washington DC (2015); Xenopolis in Berlin (2015); Afriques Capitales in Paris and Lille (2017); and Metropolis Maxxi (2018). He was member of the scientific boards of numerous museums and a visiting professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1998, he created the Pan-African master classes in photography, with the Goethe Institut, which he then directed for more than 12 years. Njami also set up the collection of contemporary art for the Memorial Acte museum in Guadeloupe. He has published and edited numerous books, with the latest being Stories Histories: The Story of Revue Noire (2020). Njami studied literature, law and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Simon Njami is Curator of the gallery sector “The Day After” at Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Simon Njami is also speaking at the Talk: The Day After

Sung woo Kim is an independent curator and writer. He is interested in curatorial methodologies that produce and pose questions relating to time and space, and investigates how to reflect individuals’ subjectivities in the form of exhibition. Kim directed the curatorial programme and management of Amado Art Space, Seoul (2015-2019), and was appointed as an artistic director in the curatorial collective formed for the Gwangju Biennale (2018). This year, he was appointed as a curatorial advisor for the Busan Biennale. The exhibitions and projects he has curated include Glider (Gallery2, Seoul, 2020); Anamorphose : depict but blurry, distant but vivid (WESS, Seoul, 2020); MINUS HOURS (Wumin Art Center, Cheongju, 2019); Tracing, Detouring, Piercing (Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, 2020); Remembrance has a rear and front (publishing project, Hejuk Press, 2019); The 12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders (Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Asia Culture Center, 2018); Different Kinds of White (P21, 2018); Black Night, Video Night (d/p, 2018); sunday is monday, monday is sunday (Space Willing n Dealing, 2018); Blank Shot (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2017); Nobody’s Space (Amado Art Space, 2016); Platform. B (Amado Art Space, 2015).

Sung woo Kim is Curator of the gallery sector “Material-Real”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Nada Raza is Curatorial Advisor for Alserkal Arts Foundation. She was the founding Artistic Director of the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai, where she curated Altered Inheritance: Home is a Foreign Place with Shilpa Gupta and Zarina Hashmi, and Body Building, a thematic exhibition of lens-based work, both in 2019. Prior to this, Raza was Research Curator at Tate Research Centre: Asia, with a particular focus on South Asia. Raza co-curated Bhupen Khakhar: You Can't Please All (2016), and organised displays of work by international artists including Meshac Gaba, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Zarina Hashmi, Sheela Gowda, Amar Kanwar and Mrinalini Mukherjee. Raza was guest curator of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2014) and curated a thematic exhibition, The Missing One, for the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh and the Office for Contemporary Art in Norway (2016). She has also worked on international art at the Institute for International Visual Art (Iniva) and at Green Cardamom in London. She holds an MA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design and is a doctoral candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Nada Raza is Curator of the gallery sector “A Picture Held Us Captive”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Ashwin Thadani founded Galerie Isa in 2011, and has since established the gallery as a leading proponent of international contemporary art on the Indian subcontinent. He has been deeply committed to the growth of the gallery since its inception and has played an integral role in exhibiting works of several critically acclaimed International artists, such as Diana Al-Hadid, Ali Banisadr, Adrian Ghenie, Olafur Eliasson and Idris Khan among others.

 Ashwin Thadani is Curator for the second year of the gallery sector “India Today”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Ashwin Thadani is also speaking at the Talk: Focus on India

 

Dr. Omar Kholeif aka Dr. O is an author of prose and poetry, a historian of the academy and its peripheries, and a curator of vanquished and/or suppressed archives. Dr. Kholeif has worked as a broadcaster, filmmaker, editor, publisher, and a museum director in South Africa, Great Britain, the United States, the GCC and Northern Africa. Over the last two decades, Dr. Kholeif’s work has concentrated on the nature of networked image culture and its relationship to intersectional questions in the field. Dr. Kholeif has curated 65+ exhibitions of visual art across five continents, and has authored, co-authored, or edited over 40 books, which have been translated into 12 languages. Dr. Kholeif was co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber, is the founding director of www.artpost21.com and is Curator of FORUM at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. Dr. Kholeif currently serves as Director of Collections and Senior Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. Kholeif’s forthcoming monograph, Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs is published by Phaidon in 2023.

The portrait is courtesy of BLAKE GALLACHER

Independent curator, art critic, and director of contemporary art institutions, Jérôme Sans was the co-founder and former director of the acclaimed Palais de Tokyo in Paris until 2006. He then moved to the UK where he became the Director of Programming at the BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, and from 2008 to 2012, he was the former director of the groundbreaking Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing (UCCA). Jérôme Sans is involved as artistic director in several major urban projects, such as the Rives de Saône-River Movie in Lyon, and, from 2015 until 2017, the Grand Paris Express cultural project. He was recently appointed as artistic director of the future contemporary art foundation of the Ile Seguin developed by Emerige in the greater Paris region. Jérôme Sans is also co-founder of Perfect Crossovers Ltd., a Beijing-based consultancy for specific cultural projects between China and the rest of the world.

Paolo Colombo is the Art Advisor for the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2008 to present). With Tamara Chalabi, he co-curated the Iraq Pavilion for the 2017 Venice Biennale. He was a curator for the 2nd Mardin Biennal in 2012 and a curator for the 3rd Thessaloniki Bienniale, in 2011. From 2001 to 2007 Colombo was Curator of the Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo in Rome. From 1989 to 2000 he was Director of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva. In 1999, he curated the 6th Istanbul Biennial. Among his exhibitions are: Rosemarie Trockel, ‘Reflections’ (2016); Ed Ruscha ’MixMaster’ (2015); ‘Neighbours: Contemporary Narratives from Turkey and Beyond’ (2014); ‘Faces’ (2012); ‘Paradise Lost’ (2011); ‘In Praise of Shadows’ (2009); ‘Ed Ruscha’ (2004); ‘Francis Alÿs’ (2002); ‘Kara Walker’ (2000); ‘Christopher Wool’ (1999); ‘Fatto in Italia: Contemporary Art from Italy’ (1997); ‘Pipilotti Rist’ (1996); ‘Ugo Rondinone’ (1996); ‘Tony Oursler’ (1995); ‘Rosemarie Trockel’ (1994); ‘Juan Munoz’ (1991); ‘Kiki Smith’ (1991); ‘Robert Gober’ (1988); ‘Carroll Dunham’ (1988). He has also been an associate producer of award-winning films, more recently The Edge of Heaven and Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akin; and The Tree by Julie Bertuccelli, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Photo by Federica Tondato

Ashwin Thadani founded Galerie Isa in 2011, and has since established the gallery as a leading proponent of international contemporary art on the Indian subcontinent. He has been deeply committed to the growth of the gallery since its inception and has played an integral role in exhibiting works of several critically acclaimed International artists, such as Diana Al-Hadid, Ali Banisadr, Adrian Ghenie, Olafur Eliasson and Idris Khan among others.

 

 

Ramin Haerizadeh (born 1975, Tehran), Rokni Haerizadeh (born 1978, Tehran) and Hesam Rahmanian (born 1980, Knoxville, Tennessee) have lived and worked together in Dubai since 2009. They work both independently and together, propagating a form of collaboration that doesn’t suppress individualism. The seeds of their language were sown as early as 1999, back in Iran. Their practice offers up a novel redefinition of the collective, as theirs is constantly growing and contracting to incorporate friends, writers and artists at large. It entails the use of both low and high art references, and they freely embrace “what is considered marginal, wasted and wrong, messed-up, useless and taken for granted”. Their individual practices differ stylistically while political and social commentary become inherently subversive in a common reflection. The exhibitions they conceive are as much insights into their daily practice, which they designate as the ritual of living and working together. Immersive and multimedia, their installations build upon their perception of life as theatre, while also making visible their process. Generally, their proposals begin with the ‘creatures’ that the three artists become, physically and mentally, and whose very beings are the roles played. Multivalent references from a variety of sources are carefully contrived and filtered, growing in parallel without trying to reconcile them. Placing emphasis on the importance of “reporting on our time”, they wish to bring attention to the urgencies of the present moment while opening up questions over a spectrum of subjects such as views on art and culture, gender fluidity and power mechanisms. “The conglomeration of things actually asks us to look at what is in front of us,” say the artists, demanding time for contemplation. They seek to encourage the viewer to recognise the reality of interdependency and the value of solidarity with others. Therefore, they create a sense of alienation or estrangement from reality with depersonalised individual subjects (creatures) and inhomogeneous crafted objects. In this way, they aim to exorcise the sentimentalism, resulting in an emotional distance to elicit from the viewer astonishment rather than empathy, and ultimately allowing for critical analysis.

Hammad Nasar is a curator, writer and researcher based in London.  He is presently Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (part of Yale University), where he co-leads the London, Asia project. He is also Senior Research Fellow (Black Artists and Modernism) at University of the Arts London and Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation. Earlier he co-founded the London-based arts organisation Green Cardamom (2004-12), and was Head of Research & Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (2012-16). Known for collaborative, research-driven and exhibition-led inquiry, he has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions internationally. His recent exhibition projects include: Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space (2005-2013); Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice (2015); and Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play – the UAE’s national pavilion at the 57^th Venice Biennale (2017).

He is a member of the Board of Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts, London), and the Editorial Board of Tate’s magazine, Tate etc. He has also served in juries and advisory roles for numerous ogranisations internationally, including: the V&A Museum’s Jameel Prize (UK); Art Basel’s crowdfunding partnership with Kickstarter (Switzerland); Delfina Foundation (UK); Alserkal Avenue (UAE), and the Lahore Biennial Foundation (Pakistan). 

Hammad Nasar is the curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2018 Gateway: Structures of Meaning | Architectures of Perception

Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim was born in Khorfakkan, in the United Arab Emirates. He studied Psychology at the Al Ain University, and completed a residency at Le Consortium Art Centre in Dijon, France. He was the Founder of the Khorfakkan Art Center, Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, U.A.E in 1997.

His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Sharjah Biennial in 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2007, the 2009 Venice Biennale, the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 2005, the Sharjah Art Museum in 2005 and 1996, the Dhaka Biennial in 2002 and 1993, Germany’s Ludwig Forum in 2002, the 2000 Havana Biennial, the 1998 Cairo Biennial, the Institut du Monde Arabe in 1998, Holland’s Sittard Art Center in 1995, and Moscow’s 1990 “Exhibition of the Emirates Fine Art Society in the Soviet Union.” Mohammed Ibrahim received the First Prize for Sculpture at the Sharjah Biennial in 2001 and 1999. His work is in significant collections, including Qatar’s Arab Museum of Modern Art, the Sharjah Art Museum and Holland’s Sittard Art Center.

Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim is the curator of Abu Dhabi Art 2018 Beyond Emerging Artists

Salwa Mikdadi is Associate Professor, Practice of Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi.  Prior to joining NYUAD, Mikdadi was a lecturer in Art History at Paris-Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi, and held leading positions at Art and Culture institutions in the Arab World and in the US. Mikdadi was the founding director of the Cultural & Visual Arts Resource/ICWA (1988-2006). She curated several exhibitions in the US and in Arab countries, including the ground-breaking Forces of Change (1994) and the first Palestinian Exhibition at the 53^rd Venice Biennial (2009) and recently co-curated Permanent Temporarines at NYUAD Gallery (2018), She is the author and co-editor of several publications, among them- Cities and Legends: Elias Zayat (Skira 2017), New Visions: Arab Contemporary Art of the 21st Century (co-editor with Nada Shabout, Thames & Hudson 2009), Palestine c/o Venice (2009), In/Visible: Arab American Artists (2005), Rhythm and Form: Visual Reflections on Arabic Poetry (1998) and Forces of Change (1994).

Salwa Mikdadi is the organiser of Abu Dhabi Art 2018 Talks programme: Global Circulation of Art and The New Markets

Nada Shabout is a Professor of Art History and the Director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative (CAMCSI) at the University of North Texas, USA. She is the founding president of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art from the Arab World, Iran and Turkey (AMCA). She is the author of Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, University of Florida Press, 2007; co-editor with Salwa Mikdadi of New Vision: Arab Art in the 21^st Century, Thames & Hudson, 2009; and co-editor with Anneka Lenssen and Sarah Rogers of the volume Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018. She is the curator of Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art, Interventions: A dialogue between the Modern and the Contemporary, 2010; co-curator of Modernism and Iraq, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2009, and curator of the traveling exhibition, Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art, 2005-2009. Her awards include: Writers Grant, Andy Warhol Foundation 2018; The Presidential Excellency Award, UNT 2018; The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) fellow 2006, 2007; MIT visiting Assistant Professor, spring 2008, and Fulbright Senior Scholar Program, 2008 Lecture/Research fellowship to Jordan.

Nada Shabout is the co-organiser of Abu Dhabi Art 2018 Talks programme: Global Circulation of Art and The New Markets

Tarek Abou El Fetouh is an independent curator and architect who lives and works in Brussels. His curatorial works include It’s Happening in the Garage”, Alexandria 2000; DisOrientation, House of World Cultures, Berlin in 2003; Roaming Inner Landscapes, Alexandria in 2004 and Sharjah Biennale 9 in 2009. He initiated Meeting Points – Festival for Contemporary Arts and curated the first four editions that took place across several cities in the Middle East. Abou El Fetouh has worked as Artistic Director of Meeting Points with curators Frie Leysen for MP5, Okwui Enwezor for MP6 and the Zagreb based collective WHW for MP7. His curatorial works include the exhibition of Home Works 6, organised by Ashkal Alwan in Beirut 2013, Lest the Two Seas Meet at MoMA, Warsaw in 2015, “The time is out of joint in Sharjah and Gwangju in 2016 and “A Captive of Love” in Red Bricks Museum, Beijing 2017. 

Tarek Abou El Fetouh is the curator of Abu Dhabi Art performing arts programme Durub Al Tawaya.