Hoor Al Qasimi

Recipient of the Issam M. Fares Award for Excellence at MEI's 2015 Annual Awards Banquet.

Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi is president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, which supports arts in the Gulf by nurturing artistic opportunities and promoting cultural exchange. She is the director of the Sharjah Biennial, one of the most celebrated cultural events in the region, which showcases the work of local and international artists. Sheikha Al Qasimi is a practicing artist with advanced degrees in painting and curating.

She is chair of the advisory board for the College of Art and Design, University of Sharjah, a member of the advisory board for Khoj International Artists’ Association, India, and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, and serves on the board of directors for MoMA PS1, New York, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, the International Biennial Association, Gwangju, and Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. Al Qasimi is a visiting lecturer at Slade School of Fine Art, London, and is currently a scholar-in-residence with The Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM) at Cornell University. She has served on the juries for the Dubai International Film Festival (2013), the Benesse Prize (2013), the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award (2012) and the selection panel for the Berlin Biennial (2012).

Her recent and upcoming curatorial projects at SAF include In Spite of it All (2012) and Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: A Collective Memory (2013), and in 2014 Ahmed Mater: 100 Found Objects, Abdullah Al Saadi: Al-Toubay, Rasheed Araeen: Before and After Minimalism, Wael Shawky: Horsemen Adore Perfumes and other stories, Susan Hefuna: Another Place, and Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara.

Hoor Al Qasimi has been appointed curator for the National Pavilion United Arab Emirates at the 2015 International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

She received her BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002), a diploma in painting from the Royal Academy of Arts (2005) and an MA in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art, London (2008). In 2003 she was appointed curator of Sharjah Biennial 6 and has continued as the Biennial’s Director since that time.