Nairy Baghramian
Artist / Germany
Nairy Baghramian’s work addresses relationships between language, history, and the present, with internationally acclaimed installations that create a dialogue between architecture and the human body, as well as objects and their meaning. A German citizen born in 1971 in Iran, Baghramian is a visual artist living and working in Berlin since 1984. Her work has been the subject of monographic exhibitions in an array of institutions, including GAM, Galleria d’arte Moderna, Milan (2021), MUDAM, Luxembourg (2019); Museo ReinaSofia, Madrid (2018); SMK, Copenhagen (2017); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2016); S.M.A.K, Ghent (2016); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2015); the Art Institute of Chicago (2014); Serpentine Gallery with Phyllida Barlow (2010); and Kunsthalle Basel (2006). Baghramian also participated at Venice Biennale (2019 and 2011); Yorkshire Sculpture International (2019); Documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens (2017); Skulptur Project Muenster (2017 and 2007); Lyon Biennale (2017); Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Scotland (2012); and the Berlin Biennale, Germany (2014 and 2008). Among numerous other awards and accolades, Baghramian was most recently the recipient of the 2022 Nasher Prize.
Pablo León de la Barra
Guggenheim Curator at Large, Latin America / Brazil
Pablo León de la Barra, Guggenheim Curator at Large, Latin America, was born in Mexico City in 1972, and holds a Ph.D. in Histories and Theories from the Architectural Association, London. León de la Barra has organized or co-organized exhibitions at institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Architecture Foundation, London; Kunsthalle Zürich; Museo Tamayo, Mexico; TEOR/éTica, San José, Costa Rica; and the David Roberts Art Foundation, London. He is the founder of the Novo Museo Tropical, was the curator of the first Bienal Tropical, San Juan (2011), and currently serves as the Director of the Casa França-Brasil in Rio de Janeiro.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea / Italy
Curator, researcher and scholar Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev is director of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and of the affiliated Fondazione Francesco Federico Cerruti. She holds a visiting professorship at Northwestern University, and has taught at the University of Leeds, at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt Am Main and at Harvard University. She served as Senior Curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center affiliated to MoMA in New York (1999-2001). In 2008 she curated the 16th Sydney Biennial, followed by dOCUMENTA(13) in 2012, and the 14th Istanbul Biennial in 2015. The following year, she returned to Turin where, until 2017, she directed both GAM Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea and Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea. Amongst her major publications is the monograph Arte Povera (London, Phaidon Press, 1999).
Lynne Cooke
Senior Curator, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. / USA
Australian native Lynne Cooke is Senior Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where she has been since August of 2014. Prior to the NGA, Cooke was the deputy director and chief curator of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid. In addition, Cooke has also served as curator for the New York-based Dia Art Foundation from 1991 to 2008; artistic director of the 10th Biennale of Sydney (1994-96); and co-curator of the 1991 Carnegie International at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art.
Briony Fer
Art Historian and Critic / UK
Briony Fer is professor of art history at University College London. She has written extensively on diverse topics of 20th century and contemporary art, and on contemporary artists, such as Gabriel Orozco, Vija Celmins, Jean-Luc Moulène, Roni Horn, Ed Ruscha, and Rachel Whiteread. Her books include Gabriel Orozco: Thinking in Circles; Eva Hesse Studiowork; The Infinite Line: Re-making Art after Modernism; and On Abstract Art.
Hou Hanru
Artistic Director, MAXXI / Italy
Hou Hanru is currently the Artistic Director of MAXXI in Rome, Italy. He has curated and co-curated exhibitions such as the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial; Shanghai Biennale; Gwangju Biennale; Venice Biennale; the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial; The 10th Istanbul Biennial; The 10th Biennale de Lyon; The 5th Auckland Triennial; and the 7th Shenzhen Hong Kong Bi-City Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, as well as numerous exhibitions at MAXXI since he began his tenure there in 2014. He is a consultant for numerous cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and frequently contributes to various journals on contemporary art and culture. He also lectures and teaches in numerous international institutions. Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) /Japan.
Yuko Hasegawa
Director, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa / Japan
Yuko Hasegawa is Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. She was a Chief Curator and Founding Artistic Director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. She currently serves as Artistic Director of Inujima Art House Project. She was named as Curator of 11th Sharjah Biennial, Co-Curator of 29th São Paulo Biennial, and Artistic Director of the 7th International Istanbul Biennial. She has also served on the jury for the Premio MAXXI BULGARI, Roma (2017); the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award (2017, 2015, 2013); and the 48 Esposizione La Biennale di Venezia (1999); among others.
Rashid Johnson
Artist / USA
Rashid Johnson is among an influential cadre of contemporary American artists whose work explores themes of art history, individual and shared cultural identities, personal narratives, literature, philosophy, materiality, and critical history. Johnson received a BA in Photography from Columbia College in Chicago and MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Johnson’s practice quickly expanded to embrace a wide range of media—including sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking, and installation—yielding a complex multidisciplinary practice that incorporates diverse materials rich with symbolism and personal history. Johnson’s work is known for its narrative embedding of a pointed range of everyday materials and objects, often associated with his childhood and frequently referencing aspects of history and cultural identity. Many of Johnson’s more recent works delve into existential themes such as personal and collective anxiety, interiority, and liminal space.
Nicholas Serota
Chairman of Arts Council England / UK
Nicholas Serota was Director of Tate since 1988. He was previously Director of the Whitechapel Art Gallery and of the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. During his period at Tate, the institution opened Tate St. Ives (1993) and Tate Modern (2000), redefining the Millbank building as Tate Britain (2000). Nicholas Serota has been a member of the Visual Arts Advisory Committee of the British Council, a Trustee of the Architecture Foundation and a commissioner on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He was a member of the Olympic Delivery Authority, which was responsible for building the Olympic Park in East London for 2012. In June 2017, Serota assumed the role of Chairman of Arts Council London.