Wassan Al-Khudhairi is a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

who specializes in modern and contemporary art from the

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

world. In 2017 she was appointed Chief Curator of the

Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis is an art museum for contemporary art, located in St. Louis, Missouri. Known informally as the CAM St. Louis, the museum is located at 3750 Washington Boulevard in the Grand Center Arts District. The buildin ...

. As the first ever director of

Mathaf Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (متحف : المتحف العربي للفن الحديث) in Doha, Qatar, offers an Arab perspective on modern and contemporary art and supports creativity, promotes dialogue and inspires new ideas. The museu ...

: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Al-Khudhairi was responsible for developing the newly established institution, overseeing policy development, acquisitions and collections registration. During her tenure at Mathaf, she curated “Saraab:

Cai Guo-Qiang Cai Guo-Qiang (; born 8 December 1957) is a Chinese artist who currently lives and works in New York City and New Jersey. Biography Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, China. His father, Cai Ruiqin, was a calligrapher ...

” (2011) and co-curated “Sajjil: A Century of Modern Art” (2010) along with

Nada Shabout Nada M. Shabout (born 8 January 1962, Glasgow, Scotland) is an American art historian specializing in modern Iraqi art. She has been a professor of art history at the University of North Texas since 2002. She is the president and co-founding bo ...

and Deena Chalabi, which showcased works from Mathaf's permanent collection. Under Al-Khudhairi's leadership, Mathaf solidified its commitment to not shy away from potentially controversial work and has hosted Art Dubai's Global Art Forum for the past several years

Education

Al-Khudhairi received her BA in Art History from Georgia State University and M.A. with distinction in Islamic Art and Architecture from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. Al-Khudhairi is of Iraqi origin and has lived in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the U.K. and the U.S., where she worked at the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

in Atlanta and the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

in New York.

Exhibitions

As a curator, her research interests are in modern art from the Arab world, with a particular emphasis on Iraq. Al-Khudhairi has presented on the role of Iraqi women artists in formulating modernism in Iraq. Al-Khudhairi's work often considers questions such as the use or recreation of history, memory, traumatic events such as war and civil uprising. One of the youngest museum directors ever and a leader within the Arab world's emerging contemporary art scene, Al-Khudhairi was a Keynote speaker at the 2012 Communicating the Museum conference. She recently curated “Third Space: Shifting Conversations about Contemporary Art” at the

Birmingham Museum of Art The Birmingham Museum of Art is a museum in Birmingham, Alabama. It has one of the most extensive collections of artwork in the Southeastern United States, with more than 24,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and decorative arts repres ...

. The exhibition included works of

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

from the Museum's permanent collection. It was on exhibit from January 28, 2017 – January 6, 2019. Al-Khudhairi was a Co-Artistic Director of ROUNDTABLE: The 9th

Gwangju Biennale The Gwangju Biennale is a contemporary art biennale founded in September 1995 in Gwangju, South Jeolla province, South Korea. The Gwangju Biennale is hosted by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation and the city of Gwangju. The Gwangju Biennale Founda ...

(Korea, 2012).

References

External links

Web site of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern ArtThe CulturistArt Asia PacificContemporary Art Museum St. LouisInterview on CNN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khudhairi, Wassan Al- Living people Iraqi emigrants to the United States Iraqi curators Year of birth missing (living people) Iraqi women curators American women curators American curators