WRITERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
BASHAR AL-SHROOGI was born in Bahrain to a family of art collectors. Trained as an architect and with a Masters in business ethics, Al-Shroogi manages the family collection of modern and contemporary art. The collection views individual works as part of an international collective, with an emphasis on quality and style rather than regional delineations. Al-Shroogi currently lives and works between Barcelona and Dubai.
ROSE ISSA is a Lebanese-Iranian curator, producer and writer specialising in the visual arts and films of the Middle East and North Africa. She has recently published Iranian Photography Now and Arabicity, featuring the work of nine contemporary artists from the Arab world. Founder of Beyond Art Production, she publishes catalogues for exhibitions featured at her London-based gallery, Rose Issa Projects.
ROXANA AZIMI is an art critic living and working in Paris. She has a PhD in history from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, and a degree in fine art from the University of Paris. She is a regular contributor to Le Monde, The Art Newspaper and Monopol.
CHRISTOPHER LORD is a writer based in Dubai. Formerly the art editor for Time Out Dubai, Lord’s focus has moved to authoring articles on contemporary art in the Middle East. He edited the pan-regional design and culture journal Brownbook between 2010-2011, and now contributes to numerous culture publications internationally.
SAM BARDAOUIL has over ten years’ experience as a curator, theatre practitioner and academic. He has curated exhibitions with international institutions such as the Fondazione Volume! in Rome, Tashkeel in Dubai, the Chelsea Art Museum in New York, and the Goethe Institute in Berlin. He has also lectured at a number of universities including the American University of Beirut, the American University in Dubai, La Sorbonne, and the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
SALWA MIKDADI is an art historian and curator whose work spans over twenty-five years in the field of Arab art and museums. She was the curator of the first Palestinian Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, and the co-editor of New Visions: Contemporary Arab Art of the 21st Century. She is currently the head of the arts and culture programme at the Emirates Foundation, and a founding member of AMCA: Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey.
KATE BUSBY is a writer and artist. She graduated with a BA in English and French literature from Oxford University in 2007 before moving to Los Angeles to pursue studies in photography. Busby’s work has been shown widely, notably at Modern Art Oxford (2007), Raid Projects, Los Angeles (2008), Papergirl Projects, Berlin (2010), and most recently at Stour Space, London (2011). She is a resident artist at London-based Mother Studios, and works between London and Barcelona.
DR VENETIA PORTER is a curator of Islamic, modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art at the British Museum in London. Her exhibitions include: Mightier than the Sword – Arabic Script, Beauty and Meaning (Melbourne 2003); Islamic Arts (Kuala Lumpur 2004); Word into Art –Artists of the Modern Middle East (London 2006, Dubai 2008); and Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam (London, 2012).
CATHERINE DAVID has worked since 2002 as director of the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. She worked during the eighties as a curator at the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Her exhibitions since the nineties have in the most part examined art practice in relation to contemporary socio-political issues, including Documenta X in 1997, and the 2003 touring project Contemporary Arab Representation. RAMI FAROOK is the founder and director of Traffic, the UAE’s first design store, gallery and studio, and host to exhibitions of contemporary art as well as lectures, workshops and screenings. In 2009 he was the winner of the British Council’s international Young Creative Entrepreneur programme, and in 2010 he curated Edge of Arabia Berlin. AARNOUT HELB is the founder and director of the Greenbox Museum in Amsterdam, the world’s first museum dedicated solely to art from contemporary artists living and working in Saudi Arabia. The museum is a cabinet of curiosities and has similarly modest aims to encourage discussion, learning, and enjoyment. HENRY HEMMING was born in 1979 and currently lives and works in London. He is the author of four books, Together: How Small Groups Achieve Big Things, Misadventure in the Middle East, In Search of the English Eccentric, and Edge of Arabia, and co-author of Offscreen: Four Young Artists in the Middle East. He has written for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Art Newspaper, among others.
282 WRITER’S BIOGRAPHIES
STEPHEN STAPLETON is an artist, teacher and social entrepreneur, and founder of the Offscreen Education Programme and Edge of Arabia. He has a degree in art and philosophy from the University of Brighton, a PGCE in art education from the University of London, and has exhibited his own work in Tehran, Amman, London, Oslo and New York. He has published several books related to the Middle East and won awards for his work in the field of intercultural education. NOUR WALI is a Syrian curator and the director of Nour Wali Art Consultancy. Among her curatorial projects, she brought together seven Saudi artists for See Sharp! Be Flat! at Art Dubai in 2010, and the Balla-Drama exhibition in 2009, of which two participating artists, Shezad Dawood and Timo Nasseri, were awarded the Abraaj Capital Art Prize. KAELEN WILSON-GOLDIE is a writer and critic based in Beirut. She is a contributing editor to Bidoun, a critic for Artforum, and a columnist for Frieze. She regularly contributes to Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star, and has written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, and The National. She has published essays on the works of Akram Zaatari, Walid Raad, and Rabih Mroué.