Omar Kholeif

Director of Collections and Senior Curator,
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah

Egyptian-born curator, writer and editor Omar Kholeif was recently appointed director of collections and senior curator at the Sharjah Art Foundation. He will play a key role in establishing the Jurainah Art Space, a cultural centre for modern and contemporary art, which will open in 2022. He has been a curator at the Whitechapel Gallery, London and was the senior curator and director of global initiatives at the MCA Chicago, where he curated shows by Michael Rakowitz, Otobong Nkanga and Basim Magdy and oversaw an increase in the museum’s holdings of Middle Eastern art. Recent projects include a David Lynch retrospective for the Manchester International Festival and the Focus section of Abu Dhabi Art.

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