ASHA IMAN VEAL
Curator and Professor of Interdisciplinary Contemporary Art (USA)
Asha Iman Veal is a curator and professor of interdisciplinary contemporary art, focused on contemporary photography and moving-image, cross diasporic projects, and intercultural dialogues through methodologies of art education.
Her recent large-scale exhibitions "LOVE: Still Not the Lesser" (MoCP Chicago 2023) and "Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part" (MoCP Chicago 2022) brought together cross-diasporic conversations between global artists Xyza Cruz Bacani, Widline Cadet, Cog•nate Collective, Sunil Gupta, Kelvin Haizel, Ngadi Smart, and more; and celebrations of love and desire by Jorian Charlton, Jess T. Dugan, and Mous Lamrabat, among others. Her Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021 partner program and exhibition "RAISIN (vol. 1)" commissioned several new artworks and generated community among more than 35 global artists, including Işıl Eğrikavuk, Amanda Williams, and Tintin Wulia. She has curated large-scale exhibitions for the MoCP, Hyde Park Art Center, MSU Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum by Zaha Hadid, and more. She has separately organized and worked on a number of projects and/or arts research since 2004, in New York, Tokyo, Havana, Vietnam, Edinburgh, Darby/London, Berlin, Juárez, and Chicago; and held staff roles in New York and Chicago.
Asha Iman is frequently invited as a distinguished jury reviewer for national and international artist awards and residencies, including the American Academy in Rome / Terra Foundation Affiliated Fellowship, Visual Studies Workshop NY, East African Photography Awards, Earth Photo Award by Forestry England and the Royal Geographical Society, University of Chicago Arts + Public Life, 3Arts Chicago, Arts Work Fund Chicago, HARPO Foundation, and more. Veal is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist for international cultural institutions such as GRAIN Projects UK, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago, Humanity In Action – Netherlands, San Diego State University, Midwest Art Historical Society, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and more.
Throughout her tenure at MoCP, she introduced an array of new acquisitions into the collection, including works by Jessica Chou, Citlali Fabian, Sunil Gupta, Martine Gutierrez, Hassan Hajjaj, Mari Katayama, Kierah KIKI King, Farah Salem, Yuge Zhou, and more.
Spoken Languages: English.