Omar Kholeif

Omar Kholeif is an Egyptian 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.[1]

Kholeif is currently the Sharjah Art Foundation’s Director of Collections and Senior Curator;[2] Senior Visiting Curator at HOME Manchester;[3] Co-Curator of the 14th Sharjah Biennial;[4] Curator of the V-A-C Foundation Venice headquarters, Palazzo delle Zattere, during the 58th Venice Biennale;[5] a curator for Abu Dhabi Art, and is a guest curator and advisor for numerous international festivals and biennials.[6]

Previously, Kholeif was the Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.[7] Prior to that, he was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing and Senior Curator at Cornerhouse in Manchester.[8] Previously, he was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing and Senior Visiting Curator at HOME in Manchester.[9]

Early Life and Education

Kholeif was born in Cairo, Egypt and holds degrees from the University of Glasgow, the Royal College of Art, London, and the University of Arts in Zurich, where he recently completed a PhD in curatorial and cross-disciplinary cultural studies.[10]

Career

Previously, Kholeif was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery,[9] Senior Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse and HOME in Manchester, Curator at Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), London and Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing.[11] His work focuses on issues of narrative and geography in contemporary accelerated culture. He has curated major exhibitions nationally and internationally including the Cyprus Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Abraaj Group Art Prize at Art Dubai and Armory Focus: Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean at the Armory Show, New York.[12]

Kholeif is the author and/or editor of over two-dozen books and has written for The Guardian,[13] Frieze,[14] Wired[15] and HuffPost.[13] His books include: Vision, Memory and Media (2010), Jeddah Childhood circa 1994 (2014) and You Are Here: Art After the Internet (2014) which was reviewed in Artforum by Douglas Coupland as the "smartest book on this topic."[16]

In 2014, Kholeif was voted one of the 50 most powerful people in the Middle Eastern art world by Canvas Magazine, one of the 100 most powerful people in the art world by ArtLyst[17] and one of eight curators to watch by Artsy.[18]

Kholeif has taught and guest lectured at numerous universities including the University of Chicago, Hunter College, New York, Northwestern University, and the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, where he most recently served as a Visiting Tutor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Churchill Fellow, a member of ICOM, the International Council of Museums, CIMAM, International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art, and AICA, the International Association of Art Critics.[19]

Exhibitions

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

  • Basim Magdy: The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings (December 2016) (with publication)
  • Eternal Youth (group show) (March 2017)
  • Michael Rakowitz: Backstroke of the West (September 2017) (with publication)
  • We Are Here (MCA 50th anniversary exhibition) (October 2017)
  • Chicago Works: Paul Heyer (Spring 2018) (with publication)
  • Otobong Nkanga: To Dig a Hole That Collapses Again (March 2018) (with publication)
  • I Was Raised on the Internet (Summer 2018)

Whitechapel Gallery

  • Fiona Banner: Stamp Out Photographie (2015)
  • James Richards: To Replace a Minute’s Silence with a Minute’s Applause (in partnership with the V-A-C Foundation) (2015)
  • Emily Jacir: Europa; Imperfect Chronology: Debating Modernism and Mapping the Contemporary (Works from the Barjeel Art Foundation) (2016-2017)
  • Electronic Superhighway: From Experiments in Art and Technology to Art After the Internet (2016)

References
  1. "Omar Kholeif | Writer, Curator". www.omarkholeif.com. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  2. Armstrong, Annie (2019-06-06). "Omar Kholeif Named Sharjah Art Foundation's Director of Collections and Senior Curator". ARTnews. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  3. "Omar Kholeif".
  4. "Omar Kholeif".
  5. "SIDEBAR: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Omar Kholeif, and W.J.T. Mitchell". artandeducation.net.
  6. "Omar Kholeif". omarkholeif.com.
  7. "Friends: Omar Kholeif".
  9. "Press release".
  10. "Omar Kholeif appointed Manilow Senior Curator at Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago". artdaily.com. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  11. "Who we are: Staff". MCA Chicago. Archived from the original on 22 February 2017. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  12. "THE ARMORY SHOW, FOCUS: MENAM". edgeofarabia.com.
  13. "Reflections on the 2014 Whitney Biennial". 27 May 2014.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-02-23. Retrieved 2015-02-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-09-07.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. "Douglas Coupland". artforum.com.
  17. "Artlyst Power 100: 2014 Alternative Art Power List revealed - Artlyst". Artlyst. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  18. Thackara, Tess (2014-12-20). "Curators To Watch in 2015, as Chosen by Art-World Insiders". Artsy. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  19. "Omar Kholeif | Writer, Curator". www.omarkholeif.com. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
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