Hammad Nasar

Hammad Nasar is a curator, writer, and strategic advisor based in London. He is co-curator (with Irene Aristizábal) of British Art Show 9 (2021–2022), the biggest touring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK, organised every five years by Hayward Gallery Touring; Principal Research Fellow at the Decolonising Arts Institute, UAL where he is developing the ‘Curating Nation’ project; and, Lead Curator at Herbert Art Gallery & Museum to support Coventry’s City of Culture Programme for 2021-22, which includes curating the Turner Prize exhibition in 2021.

Earlier, he was the inaugural Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation, London (2018-19); Head of Research & Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong (2012-16); Arts Director for the Festival of Muslim Cultures (2006-7) and, co-founded (with Anita Dawood) the pioneering hybrid arts organisation, Green Cardamom, London (2004-12).

Previously a Senior Research Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre, Hammad co-led the London, Asia research project with Sarah Victoria Turner. At the PMC he collaboratively shaped a diverse range of programmes, such as the expansive digital programme London, Asia, Art, Worlds; Showing, Telling, Seeing: Exhibiting South Asia in Britain conference; a symposium titled The LYC Museum & Art Gallery and the Museum as Practice; a public lecture course and research initiatives (including awards, displays and publications) to explore the ways in which the growing field of modern and contemporary art history in Asia intersects with, and challenges, existing histories of British art.

Known for collaborative, research-driven and exhibition-led inquiry, he has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions internationally. His exhibition projects include: Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space (2005–2013); Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice (2015); Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play – the UAE’s national pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); and Structures of Meaning | Architectures of Perception as guest curator for Abu Dhabi Art (2018–2019). He curated (with Kate Jesson), the exhibition Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition (2018–2019), at Manchester Art Gallery.

Hammad is a member of the board of Mophradat (Belgium), and the editorial board of Tate’s magazine, Tate Etc. He has also served in juries, boards and advisory roles for numerous organisations internationally, including: the V&A Museum’s Jameel Prize 4 (UK), Art Basel’s crowdfunding partnership with Kickstarter (Switzerland), Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts, UK), Delfina Foundation (UK), Alserkal Avenue (UAE) and the Lahore Biennial Foundation (Pakistan).

Hammad was a fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme (2006) and an AHRC-funded research fellow at Goldsmiths College (supervised by Irit Rogoff) in 2007.