The Glasgow School of Art is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Omar Kholeif as Programme Leader for M.Litt Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) in the School of Fine Art.
Born in Egypt, Kholeif returns to the city where they grew up and studied. An alumnus of the University of Glasgow, Dr. Kholeif is a leading scholar in contemporary art and culture, and one of the most influential voices in curating, working internationally across institutions, disciplines, and media.
Their previous roles include Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Curator at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, Senior Curator at Cornerhouse, Manchester, and currently, Director of Collections and Senior Curator at the Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. They have curated exhibitions across the globe, including presentations in Abu Dhabi, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Sharjah, and Venice, among others.
Dr. Kholeif is also a prolific writer and editor, having authored and edited over two dozen books on art, media, and contemporary culture which have been widely translated. Their critically acclaimed volumes on art, technology, and the politics of looking include You Are Here: Art After the Internet (2014); Goodbye, World! Looking at Art in the Digital Age (2018); Art in the Age of Anxiety (2021), and Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs (2023). Their writing on gender, ethnicity, and diaspora studies is noted in the significant text, In the Heart of Another Country (2022), as well as in their involvement as founding series editor of imagine/otherwise, a compilation of peer-reviewed books on ‘female worlding’ published by Sternberg Press.
An active cultural producer across platforms, in 2012, Kholeif founded artPost21, a not-for-profit cultural agency “for artists and their dreamwork.” Over the years, Dr. Kholeif has demonstrated their commitment to artist provision as a long-time trustee of SPACE, London, the UK’s oldest artist studio provider founded by Bridget Riley and Peter Sedgley, where Kholeif served as Chair: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. They are also an ambassador for Mental Health Research UK and Chair of the Jury for the College Art Association’s awards for lifetime achievement.
Martin Newth, Head of School of Fine Art, commented:
“We are thrilled to welcome Omar Kholeif to the School of Fine Art. Omar brings with them a truly global vision, a deep and sustained commitment to artists, and a powerful dedication to foregrounding marginalised and diverse perspectives. Their practice bridges the international with the local, and their return to Glasgow resonates with our ambition to cultivate new forms of curatorial thinking grounded in place, history and community. I can’t think of a better person to lead the development of our Curatorial Practices programme at this exciting time.”
Professor Omar Kholeif commented: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at The Glasgow School of Art. I look forward to collaborating with colleagues at the GSA and the University of Glasgow in the years to come. Glasgow is a cultural beacon—it is where I first caught the contemporary art bug; the place I naturalised as a British citizen, and where much of my family continues to live. My aspiration is to create a nurturing student experience that inspires and enriches how we experience not only art, but culture more broadly. In parallel, contributing to the school’s dynamic research community is an imperative – linking our scholarship to a global context, we can explore the myriad historical routes of art and curatorial practices.”
For further information, please contact press@gsa.ac.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About The Glasgow School of Art (GSA)
The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) is internationally recognised as one of Europe’s leading independent university-level institutions for education and research in the visual creative disciplines. Our studio-based, specialist, practice-led teaching, learning and research draw talented individuals with a shared passion for visual culture and creative production from all over the world. Originally founded in 1845 as one of the first Government Schools of Design, the School’s history can be traced back to 1753 and the establishment of the Foulis Academy delivering a European-style art education. Today, the GSA is an international community of over 3500 students and staff across architecture, design, fine art, innovation and technology in our campuses in Glasgow and Altyre (in the Scottish Highlands) and a thriving Open Studio programme delivering non-degree provision to over 1500 students annually.
