Omar Kholeif is an 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. Kholeif is currently the Sharjah Art Foundation’s Director of Collections and Senior Curator; Senior Visiting Curator at HOMEManchester; Co-Curator of the 14th Sharjah Biennial; Curator of the V-A-C Foundation Venice headquarters, :it:Fondamenta delle Zattere|Palazzo delle Zattere, during the 58th Venice Biennale; a curator for Abu Dhabi Art, and is a guest curator and advisor for numerous international festivals and biennials. Previously, Kholeif was the Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Prior to that, he was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing and Senior Curator at Cornerhouse in Manchester. Previously, he was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing and Senior Visiting Curator at HOME in Manchester.
Previously, Kholeif was Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, Senior Visiting Curator at Cornerhouse and HOME in Manchester, Curator at Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, London and Senior Editor at Ibraaz Publishing. 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. Kholeif is the author and/or editor of over two-dozen books and has written for The Guardian, Frieze, Wired and HuffPost. His books include: Vision, Memory and Media, Jeddah Childhood circa 1994 and You Are Here: Art After the Internet which was reviewed in Artforum by Douglas Coupland as the "smartest book on this topic." 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 and one of eight curators to watch by Artsy. 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.
Exhibitions
Basim Magdy: The Stars Were Aligned for a Century of New Beginnings
