Anne Barlow is a curator and director in the field of international contemporary art, and is currently Director of Tate St Ives, [1] Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018. [2] [3] There she directs and oversees the artistic vision and programme, including temporary exhibitions, collection displays, artist residencies, new commissions, and a learning and research programme. At Tate St Ives, Barlow has curated solo exhibitions of work by artists including: Outi Pieski (2024); Hera Büyüktaşcıyan (2023); Burçak Bingöl (2022); Prabhakar Pachpute (2022); Thảo Nguyên Phan (2022); Petrit Halilaj (2021); Haegue Yang (2020); Otobong Nkanga (2019); Huguette Caland (2019); Amie Siegel (2018) and Rana Begum (2018). She was also co-curator of "Naum Gabo: Constructions for Real Life" (2020) and collaborating curator with Castello di Rivoli, Turin for Anna Boghiguian at Tate St Ives (2019). [4]
Barlow was formerly Artistic Director of Tate St Ives (2017–2018) [5] [6] and Director of Art in General [7] in New York City (2007–2016). During her tenure at Art in General, she commissioned and curated projects [8] with artists including: Dineo Seshee Bopape (2016); Donna Huanca (2015); Adelita Husni-Bey (2015); Marwa Arsanios (2015); Basim Magdy (2014); Sara Greenberger Rafferty (2014); Jill Magid (2013); Meriç Algün Ringborg (2013); Shezad Dawood (2013); Anetta Mona Chişa and Lucia Tkáčová (2013); Ohad Meromi (2010); Surasi Kusolwong (2007) and Ana Prvacki (2007). Barlow also initiated and oversaw programmatic partnerships with arts organizations in Brisbane, Bucharest, Cairo, Holon, Lisbon, London, Manchester, Riga, Tallinn, Tbilisi, Vilnius, Warsaw, and Zagreb. In 2014, she launched Art in General’s award-winning annual symposium "What Now?" on critical and timely issues in the field, establishing an educational partnership with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York, and overseeing the symposia “Collaboration and Collectivity” [9] (2014); “The Politics of Listening” [10] (2015); and “On Future Identities” [11] (2016).
In 2023, Barlow curated the Samdani Art Award for the sixth Dhaka Art Summit বন্যা / Bonna, Bangladesh. [12] [13] She has curated and contributed to a number of biennial projects including “Tactics for the Here and Now”; [14] [15] “North by Northeast”, [16] Latvian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (Co-Curator, 2013); 2nd Tbilisi Triennial, [17] Georgia (Guest project curator, 2015) and “Shifts and Interruptions” for The Jerusalem Show VII, [18] presented in framework of second Qalandiya International (Guest film curator, 2014). In 2013, she curated the Centennial Edition “Armory Open Forum” [19] program for The Armory Show, New York.
Prior to Art in General, Barlow was Curator of Education and Media Programs at the New Museum, New York (1999–2007) where she led the department’s new media, public programs, and collaborative projects. From 2004–2006, she conceptualized and developed the "Museum as Hub" [20] initiative and established its first partnerships [21] in Cairo, Eindhoven, Mexico City, and Seoul. She also curated numerous museum and on-line exhibitions; initiated and produced the museum’s Digital Culture Programs; and organized inter-disciplinary roundtables, public programs, performances and broadcasts. She was formerly Curator of Contemporary Art and Design at Glasgow Museums (1994–1999), where she oversaw its collection of international contemporary art and design, exhibitions program, artists’ residencies, commissions, and new acquisitions.
Barlow has been a jury member of numerous selection panels and awards including: 2023 Ars Fennica Award, Helsinki, Finland (2023); [22] [23] The Arts Foundation Futures Awards for Visual Arts (2022), London, UK; [24] Artist of Tomorrow, Prishtina, Kosovo (2020-22 and 2016); British Pavilion Selection Committee, 58th Venice Biennale (2019); [25] MAC International 2018, Belfast, Northern Ireland (2018); [26] “Montblanc Cultural Foundation Curatorium” (2017–2019); [27] Curatorial Advisory Committee, Mumbai Art Room, India (2017); Exposure 8, Beirut Art Center, Lebanon (2016); kim? Contemporary Art Award, Latvia (2016 and 2015); T-HT Award, Zagreb, Croatia (2014); and the Akbank Curatorial Prize, Istanbul, Turkey (2013). Barlow has also been a panelist/advisor to funding organizations including: Creative Capital, New York (2005 and 2006); New York State Council on the Arts (2003–2005); and the Rockefeller Foundation (2002 and 2003); and has lectured, moderated or participated in talks at organizations including Istanbul Modern (2020); Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand (2019); Art Basel Conversations Programme, Art Basel Hong Kong (2019); [28] Tate Modern (2018 and 2019); [29] [30] the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2015); [31] the Sharjah Art Foundation (2012); IASPIS Stockholm (2011); ARCO Madrid (2011); [32] Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2009); [33] and the IMLS National Leadership Awards (2004). In 2020, Barlow was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Arts University Plymouth in recognition of her outstanding contribution to arts and culture. [34]
Barlow is editor/contributor to a number of publications including:
Barlow has also published in numerous arts magazines and journals such as ArteEast Quarterly, ArtPulse Magazine, The Journal for Curatorial Studies, and Ibraaz.
Barlow holds a Masters in the History of Art from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
Tate St Ives is an art gallery in St Ives, Cornwall, England, exhibiting work by modern British artists with links to the St Ives area. The Tate also took over management of another museum in the town, the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, in 1980.
The Bucharest Biennale is a contemporary art biennale held in Bucharest, Romania.
Kimathi Donkor is a London-based contemporary British artist whose paintings are known for their exploration of global, black histories. His work is exhibited and collected by international museums, galleries and biennials including London's National Portrait Gallery, the British Museum, the Diaspora Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennial, the 29th São Paulo Art Biennial and the 15th Sharjah Biennial. He is of Ghanaian, Anglo-Jewish and Jamaican family heritage, and his figurative paintings depict "African diasporic bodies and souls as sites of heroism and martydom, empowerment and fragility...myth and matter".
Charles Esche is a museum director, curator and writer. His focus is on art and how it reflects, provokes and influences changes in society. He lives between Edinburgh and Eindhoven.
Hou Hanru is an international art curator and critic based in San Francisco, Paris and Rome. He was Artistic Director of the National Museum MAXXI in Rome, Italy, from 2013 to 2023.
Christiane Paul is Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art and professor emerita in the School of Media Studies at The New School. She is the author of the book Digital Art, which is part of the 'World of Art' series published by Thames & Hudson.
Chika Okeke-Agulu is a Nigerian artist, art historian, art curator, and blogger specializing in African and African diaspora art history. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Beatrice "Bice" Curiger is a Swiss art historian, curator, critic and publisher who has been the Artistic Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles since 2013. In 2011 she became only the third woman to curate the Venice Biennale.
June Yap is a Singaporean curator, art critic, and writer. She is currently the Director of Curatorial & Collections at the Singapore Art Museum.
Omar Kholeif is an Egyptian-born artist, curator, writer and editor. Kholeif's curatorial practice focuses on art that intersects with the internet, as well as works of art from emerging geographic territories that have yet to be seen in the mainstream.
Alex Farquharson is a British curator and art critic who was appointed Director, Tate Britain in Summer 2015. As Director, Tate Britain he is Chair of the Turner Prize.
Defne Ayas is a curator, lecturer, and editor in the field of contemporary art and its institutions. Ayas directed, cofounded, curated, and advised a number of art institutes, initiatives and exhibition platforms across the globe, including in the United States, Netherlands, China and Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, Lithuania, and Italy. Exploring art's role within social and political processes, Ayas is best known for conceiving innovative exhibition and biennale formats within diverse geographies, in each instance composing interdisciplinary frameworks that provide historical anchoring and engagement with local conditions. Working between Berlin and New York since 2018, she is currently serving as Senior Program Advisor and Curator at Large at Performa. Until June 2021, Ayas was also the Artistic Director of 2021 Gwangju Biennale, together with Natasha Ginwala.
Natalie King is an Australian curator and writer working in Melbourne, Australia. She specializes in Australian and international programs for contemporary art and visual culture. This includes exhibitions, publications, workshops, lectures and cultural partnerships across contemporary art and indigenous culture.
Anna Boghiguian is an Egyptian contemporary artist. One of Egypt's foremost contemporary artists, her work investigates various historical events in a political context, such as the history of the cotton trade, the salt trade and the life of Egyptian Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. Her work frequently takes the form of vast installations composed of painted figures that are arranged to fill rooms.
Kader Attia is an Algerian-French artist.
Stefanie Hessler is a German-born contemporary art curator, an art writer, and the current director of Swiss Institute in New York. From 2019 to 2022 she was the director of Kunsthall Trondheim in Trondheim, Norway.
Susanna Gyulamiryan, Armenian curator, art critic and feminist scholar. She is the appointed curator of the Pavilion of the Republic of Armenia at 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2019). Gyulamiryan is co-founder and the president of the non-governmental organization “Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory” (ACSL), and artistic director of the “Art Commune” International Artist-in-Residence Program. The “Art Commune” is a general member of the Res Artis worldwide network of artist residencies (resartis.org). Gyulamiryan is a (board) member of AICA-Armenia. She has led courses in Gender Studies and Feminist Art [Theory and Practice] at the Department of Fine Arts, Armenian Open University, and has also carried out MA course in Gender Studies at Yerevan State University, Department of Cultural Studies. She worked as a contributing editor and leader of the monthly columns “The Name of Art” and “Art Situations” at “CinemArt” –the journal on cinematography and contemporary art. The circle of Gyulamiryan's professional interests and studies embraced feminist art, participatory /community art and art of social and political engagement in conjunction with civil and political activism.
Zoé Whitley is an American art historian and curator who has been director of Chisenhale Gallery since 2020. Based in London, she has held curatorial positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate galleries, and the Hayward Gallery. At the Tate galleries, Whitley co-curated the 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which ARTnews called one of the most important art exhibitions of the 2010s. Soon after she was chosen to organise the British pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Gayane Olegovna Umerova is an art critic, public figure of culture and art of Uzbekistan, and art curator.
Hoor Al Qasimi is an Emirati Sheikha, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation and public figure in the art world. Al Qasimi globally represents Middle Eastern art and artists through the Sharjah Biennial.