The Sharjah Art Foundation, which organizes the Sharjah Biennial, today revealed the five-person curatorial team that will shape the event’s sixteenth iteration. Natasha Ginwala, Amal Khalaf, Zeynep Öz, Alia Swastika, and Megan Tamati-Quennell will each organize distinct but intersecting projects for the Biennial, which will run from February to June 2025. Ginwala is the artistic director of COLOMBOSCOPE, Colombo, and associate curator at large at Berlin’s Gropius Bau; Khalaf is director of programs at Cubitt and civic curator at the Serpentine Galleries, both in London. Öz is an independent curator working in Istanbul and New York, while Swastika is director of the Biennale Jogja Foundation, Yogyakarta. Tamati-Quennell is based in New Zealand, where she is a curator of modern and contemporary Māori and Indigenous art.
“The Sharjah Biennial is intentionally expansive and decentralised in its approach, an ethos that is echoed by the five disparate perspectives we are bringing together for the Biennial’s sixteenth edition,” said Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of Sharjah Art Foundation, in a statement. “These visionary curators have worked relentlessly to advance scholarship and practice in the field of contemporary art, achieving deep impact both in their local contexts and internationally. With each curator bringing in their unique approach and viewpoint, Sharjah Biennial 16 offers the opportunity to witness their ideas in conversation and culminates in a truly polyphonic examination of contemporary art and cultural practice.”
The five curators will invite established and emerging artists of disparate backgrounds working in a wide variety of disciplines, including visual art, performance, music, and publication. The Biennial, for which no theme has yet been announced, will be held in various venues across the emirate. A complete list of locations and participating artists is forthcoming.
