2020 Biographies

Simon Njami is a Paris-based independent curator, lecturer, art critic and novelist. Njami was the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Revue Noire, a journal of contemporary African and extra-occidental art. He has served as the Artistic Director of the first Johannesburg art fair in 2008, the Bamako photography biennale for 10 years, and the Dak’art Biennale (2018/2018). He also co-curated the first African pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007. Njami has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art and photography, including Africa Remix (2004/2007) and the first African Art Fair, held in Johannesburg in 2008; The Divine Comedy (2013), at the MMK (Museum fur Moderne Kunst) in Frankfurt; SCAD, Savannah (2014) and The Smithsonian in Washington DC (2015); Xenopolis in Berlin (2015); Afriques Capitales in Paris and Lille (2017); and Metropolis Maxxi (2018). He was member of the scientific boards of numerous museums and a visiting professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1998, he created the Pan-African master classes in photography, with the Goethe Institut, which he then directed for more than 12 years. Njami also set up the collection of contemporary art for the Memorial Acte museum in Guadeloupe. He has published and edited numerous books, with the latest being Stories Histories: The Story of Revue Noire (2020). Njami studied literature, law and philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Simon Njami is Curator of the gallery sector “The Day After” at Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Simon Njami is also speaking at the Talk: The Day After

Sung woo Kim is an independent curator and writer. He is interested in curatorial methodologies that produce and pose questions relating to time and space, and investigates how to reflect individuals’ subjectivities in the form of exhibition. Kim directed the curatorial programme and management of Amado Art Space, Seoul (2015-2019), and was appointed as an artistic director in the curatorial collective formed for the Gwangju Biennale (2018). This year, he was appointed as a curatorial advisor for the Busan Biennale. The exhibitions and projects he has curated include Glider (Gallery2, Seoul, 2020); Anamorphose : depict but blurry, distant but vivid (WESS, Seoul, 2020); MINUS HOURS (Wumin Art Center, Cheongju, 2019); Tracing, Detouring, Piercing (Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul, 2020); Remembrance has a rear and front (publishing project, Hejuk Press, 2019); The 12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders (Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, Asia Culture Center, 2018); Different Kinds of White (P21, 2018); Black Night, Video Night (d/p, 2018); sunday is monday, monday is sunday (Space Willing n Dealing, 2018); Blank Shot (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2017); Nobody’s Space (Amado Art Space, 2016); Platform. B (Amado Art Space, 2015).

Sung woo Kim is Curator of the gallery sector “Material-Real”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Nada Raza is Curatorial Advisor for Alserkal Arts Foundation. She was the founding Artistic Director of the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai, where she curated Altered Inheritance: Home is a Foreign Place with Shilpa Gupta and Zarina Hashmi, and Body Building, a thematic exhibition of lens-based work, both in 2019. Prior to this, Raza was Research Curator at Tate Research Centre: Asia, with a particular focus on South Asia. Raza co-curated Bhupen Khakhar: You Can't Please All (2016), and organised displays of work by international artists including Meshac Gaba, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Zarina Hashmi, Sheela Gowda, Amar Kanwar and Mrinalini Mukherjee. Raza was guest curator of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2014) and curated a thematic exhibition, The Missing One, for the Dhaka Art Summit in Bangladesh and the Office for Contemporary Art in Norway (2016). She has also worked on international art at the Institute for International Visual Art (Iniva) and at Green Cardamom in London. She holds an MA from the Chelsea College of Art and Design and is a doctoral candidate at the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Nada Raza is Curator of the gallery sector “A Picture Held Us Captive”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Ashwin Thadani founded Galerie Isa in 2011, and has since established the gallery as a leading proponent of international contemporary art on the Indian subcontinent. He has been deeply committed to the growth of the gallery since its inception and has played an integral role in exhibiting works of several critically acclaimed International artists, such as Diana Al-Hadid, Ali Banisadr, Adrian Ghenie, Olafur Eliasson and Idris Khan among others.

 Ashwin Thadani is Curator for the second year of the gallery sector “India Today”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Born in Beirut, currently lives in Oxford, UK.

Maya El-Khalil is an independent curator, who for the last decade has been working locally, regionally and internationally with artists, collectors and institutions to develop the identity and ideas that have defined the contemporary art scene in Saudi Arabia. From its inception in 2009 until 2016, she was the Founding Director of Athr, a leading contemporary art gallery based in Jeddah. She is the curator of the 7th Edition of 21,39 Jeddah Arts.

El Khalil holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from the American University of Beirut. She is currently enrolled in an MA Program in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths University.

Maya El-Khalil is Curator of the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Rose Lejeune is a London-based curator and researcher focused on creating sustainable, cross-sector mechanisms to support the production and collection of contemporary art across the whole range of materials and mediums that artists today use.

In addition to regular writing and public speaking on these topics, she is currently working towards Performance Exchange, a UK-wide project working to embed performance within collections, and highlight the work commercial galleries do to support artists across the spectrum of contemporary art materials and practices. Rose is also the Associate Curator for the Delfina Foundation’s Collecting as Practice programme where she developed the groundbreaking programme that looks at the politics and economics of global collections.

Rose’s current curatorial activities have developed following a decade of experience working with public organisations throughout the UK and in particular working closely with artists to commission for non-gallery situations. This includes as Curator for Art on the Underground, and Education Projects Curator at the Serpentine Gallery. Rose holds a BA in Philosophy and Art History, and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. Finally, Rose is currently a PhD candidate in Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London, where her research focuses on curatorial frameworks for performance art in, and out, of the art market.

Rose Lejeune is Curator of performing arts programme “In the Round”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Born and works in Dubai.

Hind Mezaina's work delves into themes of collective memory, the notion of heritage, and the representation of Dubai and the UAE in the media. Her work is a continuous development of what she describe as a ‘visual archaeology’ through research, observation, collecting and preserving memories.

Working primarily in photography, and most recently in video and collage, her work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in the UAE and abroad, , including ‘Made in Tashkeel’ (Tashkeel, 2018); Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (2017); ‘Al Haraka Baraka: In Movement There Is Blessing’ (Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, 2016). She has also worked on various commissioned projects, including ‘The Wedding Project’ (Art Dubai, 2016); ‘In the Meanwhile’ (Global Art Forum, Art Dubai, 2014); ‘Cassette Project’ (Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp, Dubai, 2013) and ‘Mass Medium: Emirati TV on Home Video’, (Global Art Forum, Art Dubai, 2012). Hind curates film screenings for Louvre Abu Dhabi, is the Founder of The Culturist blog and the Co-Founder of Tea with Culture podcast. She participated in the 2016 Autumn Programme residency at Delfina Foundation, supported by Maraya Art Centre. She is a graduate of the 2015–2016 Salama Emerging Artist Fellowship (SEAF) and was selected for A.i.R Dubai 2015, a partnership between Delfina Foundation, Dubai Culture and Arts Authority and Tashkeel.

Hind Mezaina is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil

Born and works in Abu Dhabi.
Afra Al Dhaheri’s work is rooted in her experiences growing up in Abu Dhabi and the wider UAE – a place of recent and rapid change. Working across various mediums including mixed media, sculpture, drawing, painting, installation, photography, and printmaking, she draws out notions of time and adaptation, rigor and fragility. 
With each experiment, there is a new phase, each new phenomenon or actualization plucked from her unique vocabulary of references – repetition acts as a method for prolonging time as much as a tool through which to truly experience or realize each stage of a work.
Born in 1988 in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Al Dhaheri obtained her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design, USA in 2017 and completed residencies with  The Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artists Fellowship, in partnership with the Rhode Island School of Design in 2014 and Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives, Cornwall, UK (2019). 
Her first solo exhibition ‘Inevitable Ephemera’ was hosted by T + H Gallery in Boston, USA in 2016. Selected group exhibitions include ‘Avoid Bad Dreams’, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2019); ‘Barcelona to Abu Dhabi’, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2018) and ‘Emirati Expressions’, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE (2011 and 2015). She works as an Assistant Professor in Visual Arts at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Afra Al Dhaheri is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil 

Born and works in Abu Dhabi.
Emirati artist Afra Salman Al Suwaidi was born in 1992. She specialized in fine arts and received a BA Degree from Zayed University in 2016. Al Suwaidi participated in a number of shows locally and internationally. In 2015 she participated in an exhibition at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center in New York and at Lessedra World Art Print Annual Exhibition in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2017 she participated in Imago Mundi in Treviso, Italy. Locally Al Suwaidi  presented her work in the French Alliance Art Exhibition In Abu Dhabi and in ‘Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: Do Art Do It Now’, Manarat Al Saadiyat in 2017. Most recently she participated in the 35th Annual Exhibition of the Emirates Fine Arts Society in Sharjah, UAE.  
Al Suwaidi is currently participating in the Cultural Foundation Art Residency 2020.

Afra Al Suwaidi is a commissioned artist for the programme “Beyond: Emerging Artists”, Abu Dhabi Art 2020 curated by Maya El-Khalil 

Multimedia artist Nástio Mosquito is known for performances, videos, music and poetry that show an intense commitment to the open-ended potential of language.
Easily misread as a kind of world weariness, it is the extraordinary expression of an urgent desire to engage with reality at all levels.

Nástio Mosquito is Artist for the Performance In the Round curated by Rose Lejeune, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Raed Yassin (born 1979, Beirut) is an artist and musician. He graduated from the theater department at the Insitute of Fine Arts in Beirut in 2003, and since then has developed his conceptual practice through multiple mediums such as video, sound, photography, text, sculpture and performance. Yassin’s work often originates from an examination of his personal narratives and their position within a collective history, through the lens of consumer culture and mass production. He was a resident artist at De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2008-2010), the Delfina Foundation, London (2010 & 2014), Akademie der Künste der Welt, Cologne (2015), and is a recipient of the Abraaj Group Art Prize (2012). As a musician, he is one of the organizers of the Irtijal Festival for Experimental Music (Beirut), and has released several solo music albums, as well as part of groups such as “A” Trio and PRAED. In 2009, he founded his independent music label Annihaya. Raed currently lives between Berlin and Beirut.

Raed Yassin is Artist for the Performance In the Round curated by Rose Lejeune, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

Alice Theobald (born 1985, UK) is an artist working across a range of media including live performance, film, installation, music, text and sculpture to explore the divisions between stage and life and the discrepancies between expression, perception, appearance and feeling. Often conflating sentimental tropes and archetypes with absurdist humour, Theobald uses performance as both starting point and subject matter to magnify aspects of everyday life and typically introspective thought. Her practice is concerned with the desire for authenticity and commodification of emotion and what this might say about empathy, aspiration and how we (mis)communicate. Fluctuating between script and improvisation, her work highlights the unstable relationship between art, communication and representation by referencing the hybrid nature of their construction through repetition and the metaphorical potential of language, image, sound and action.

Recent exhibitions include What Not To Wear Out My Soul, Art Night, London; We May Believe or We May Never Know, The White House CREATE, Dagenham; It’s Not Who You Are it’s How You Are, Baltic, Gateshead. She has also shown at Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge; Pilar Corrias, London; Lisson Gallery, London; Focal Point, South-end; The Chisenhale, London; Gasworks, London; Baro Galeria, Sao Paulo. Theobald has held residencies at the British Art Council, Muscat; La Salle, Singapore; Solaris, Bordeaux. She is co-founder of music/artist-collective Ravioli Me Away - In 2019 they produced a UK touring ‘Alt-Opera’.

Alice Theobald is Artist for the Performance In the Round curated by Rose Lejeune, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.

As if harnessing the subconscious, Maitha Abdalla’s work oscillates between the diaphanous, vibrant and surreal, and is always marked by an atmosphere of reminiscence and nostalgia. Often evolved into series articulating strong cultural narratives, her paintings sculptures and performance works are assemblages of memory, travel and human interactions. Informed by exchanges and experiences, her socially driven commentaries on the human condition reveal astute, intuitive observations on the world around her, in a narrative form. A particularly influential encounter was with the children of an orphanage, where Maitha taught English and art. The motifs of childhood began to permeate her work after this time, becoming an eloquent vernacular in which she further explores the difference between the imaginary and the real; mapping the liminal space between these interconnected worlds, she plays out many questions of social and cultural identity.

Maitha Abdalla is Artist for the Performance In the Round curated by Rose Lejeune, Abu Dhabi Art 2020.