Mathqaf’s Essential Reading List For Modern Arab Art

Compared to the wealth of literature dealing with modern art in the West, the scholarly and literary contributions to modern Arab art are scarce. Despite the lack of historical perspectives and accounts, the field is developing thanks to a number of active researchers and scholars and an increasing institutional support from regional and international organisations….

The Studio Museum In Harlem Director & Chief Curator Th...

Thelma Golden is Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by artists of African descent. Golden began her career as a Studio Museum intern in 1987. The following year, she joined the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she launched her influential curatorial practice….

Artist Rana Begum’s Lockdown Listening/Reading List

The work of Bangladesh-born London-based visual artist Rana Begum distils spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of Minimalist abstraction, Begum blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her recent exhibitions include solo presentations at Mumbai’s Jhaveri Contemporary and Galerie Christian Lethert, Cologne. The artist shares with Something Curated, “I…

Art Historian & Author Claire Bishop’s Thought-Provokin...

Regarded as one of the central theorists of participation in visual art and performance, Claire Bishop is a British art historian, critic, and Professor of Art History at The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York. Her 2004 essay entitled “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics,” which was published by MIT Press, remains a seminal and highly referenced critique,…

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Director Touria El Glaoui...

1-54 is the first international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Founded by Touria El Glaoui, the fair has held annual editions in London since 2013, New York since 2015 and Marrakech since 2018. Drawing reference to the fifty-four countries that constitute the African continent, the fair is a sustainable…

Zeitz MOCAA Director & Chief Curator Koyo Kouoh’s Quara...

In 2019, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, appointed Cameroonian-born curator Koyo Kouoh as Executive Director and Chief Curator. Prior to her role at the institution, as the founding Artistic Director of the RAW Material Company, a centre for art, knowledge and society in Dakar, she developed numerous art programmes…

Mumbai Gallerist Amrita Jhaveri’s Quarantine Reading List

Mumbai-based gallery Jhaveri Contemporary was established in 2010 by sisters Amrita and Priya Jhaveri with a focus on representing artists, across generations and nationalities, whose work is informed by South Asian connections and traditions. Platforming emerging voices alongside the diverse practices of long-celebrated luminaries, the gallery’s eclectic curatorial approach champions a uniquely layered and discursive…

Hayward Gallery Director Ralph Rugoff’s Quarantine Reading L...

Curator Ralph Rugoff OBE has been the Director of London’s Hayward Gallery since 2006, and last year, curated the 58th Venice Biennale, entitled May You Live in Interesting Times. Since his appointment at the Hayward, Rugoff has overseen the institution’s rise to one of the city’s most important public art spaces. With his vision, the…

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