Speakers at the Future Now Symposium 2021
Alice Duncan
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Alice Duncan is an artist and photographer who resides in Melbourne (Naarm/Birraranga), Australia. Alice’s practice exposes the multifaceted, ever-changing and constructed nature of our personal and cultural identities. Utilising photography, Alice visualises the complexities involved in collectively living on colonised land. Alice’s recent international exhibitions include the 66th Blake Prize in Sydney, Pingyao Photography Festival in China and at the Queensland Centre for Photography.
Alex Prager
Artist and Filmmaker
Cinematic Storytelling
Alex Prager is an artist and filmmaker who creates elaborately staged scenes that expose the often-overlooked aspects of everyday life and culture through complexly layered narratives and fictionalised characters. The highly choreographed nature of her photographs and films exposes the way images are constructed and consumed in our media-saturated society. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker and Vogue, and exhibited at institutions worldwide.
Dr. Ali MacGilp
Curator and Art Historian
New Australian Art
Dr. Ali MacGilp is a curator and art historian based in London. She has been a Director at Frith Street Gallery, London since 2018. She was Programmes Curator at Contemporary Art Society, London, and Curator at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah. She undertook her Ph.D. at the University of Reading (2011), writing on the development of Tate’s Collection. She has also worked as a lecturer, writer and editor and is half of curatorial duo norn. She has curated in the UK and abroad.
Andrew Leventis
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Andrew Leventis creates intricately detailed oil paintings of contemporary vanitas. He has recently depicted his stocked refrigerator and icebox throughout the global pandemic. Andrew earned a BFA from the American Academy of Art in Chicago and an MFA from Goldsmiths, University of London. He has shown at the Arte Laguna Prize, the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Museo Crocetti, New American Paintings and San Pietra Gallery.
Antoinette Nassopoulos-Erickson
Senior Partner, Foster + Partners
Architecture of the Future: Award-Winning Design
Antoinette is an architect and urban designer, chair of the Women’s Forum at Foster + Partners, with over 25 years’ experience. Her work includes HSBC HQ, 30 St Mary Axe, Hearst Tower and the masterplan for Hellinikon in Athens. Her specialist experience in aviation and terminal design has enabled her to lead several airport projects including Heathrow, JFK New York, Tocumen, Panama, Mexico City and Marseille. Her most ambitious and complex project is the world’s first commercial spaceport.
Antwaun Sargent
Writer, Editor and Curator
Curating During a Time of Change
Antwaun Sargent is writer, editor, curator living in New York City. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, VICE, Vogue and various art and museum publications. Sargent is the author of The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion, published by Aperture. He is also editor of Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists from D.A.P. He recently curated the exhibition Just Pictures, and is a director at Gagosian Gallery.
Athi-Patra Ruga
Artist
Beyond Each Horizon is Another
Athi-Patra Ruga is a South African artist whose work has adopted the trope of myth as a contemporary response to the post-apartheid era, creating alternative identities to parody the status quo. He uses ‘utopia’ as a lens to process the fraught history of a colonial past, to critique the present and propose a possible humanist vision for the future. Ruga’s work has been exhibited at Hayward Gallery, London; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris; SFMOMA, San Francisco and Tate Modern, London.
Audrey Carlin
CEO at Wasps Studios
Artist Opportunities
Audrey Carlin is the Chief Executive Officer at Wasps, Scotland’s largest provider of creative spaces. Wasps, (Workshop and Artists’ Studio Provision Scotland Ltd) provides affordable high-quality studio, office and working space to 1000 artists, creative industries and cultural tenants at 20 locations across Scotland; in cities, rural areas and Islands. A Chartered Town Planner by profession with over 25 years’ experience, Audrey has delivered over £45m of regeneration in Scotland.
Bieke Depoorter
Photographer
Authority, Ownership & Collaboration
Bieke Depoorter received a master’s degree in photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent in 2009. Three years later, at 25 years old, she was made a nominee of the photo cooperative Magnum Photos, where she was named a full member in 2016. Depoorter has won several awards and honours, including the Magnum Expression Award, The Larry Sultan Award and the Prix Levallois. She has published four books with Aperture, Editions Xavier Barral, Lannoo and more.
Bill Posters
Artist
Deep Fakes: Control and Subversion in Art
Working under the pseudonym Bill Posters, Barnaby Francis is an artist-researcher, author and facilitator who is interested in art as research and critical practice. Posters’ works often interrogate disinformation, persuasion architectures and power relations in public space and online. He works across the arts, sciences and advocacy fields on conceptual, sculptural, new media, net art, installation and synthetic art. His works have been shown at Design Museum, London and Banksy’s Dismaland.
Chiara Costa
Head of Programs, Fondazione Prada
Curating During a Time of Change
Chiara Costa, art historian and researcher, was appointed Head of Programs at Fondazione Prada in 2019. Previously, she was editor of publications at the museum. She recently curated the monographs Whether Line, dedicated to artists Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin, and Jannis Kounellis. She has collaborated with the Venice Biennale and Manifesta, and has written for Treccani, Vogue.it, Mousse, Nero, Arte, Exibart and Kaleidoscope. She is the author of the history of the Dwan Gallery in LA and New York.
Carlos David
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Carlos David is a visual artist focusing on diversity and inclusion. Through multimedia portraiture, he explores the intricate relationship between the way we see ourselves and the objective reality captured by the camera and the observer. His work focuses on creating a diverse community drawn together by the collective action of revealing their dreams and fantasies. David is a 2019 LMCC and UMEZ grantee. His work has been exhibited in New York City,
Mexico City, and Croatia.
Cathryn Shilling
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Cathryn Shilling is an internationally renowned, London based glass artist. She began her arts career as a graphic designer but went on to study glass after moving to Connecticut with her family. On returning to the UK, Shilling studied both kiln formed glass and blown glass, setting up her studio in 2009 from where she has gone on to create a huge body and variety of work. Alongside her own practice for the last eleven years Shilling has also been a curator of contemporary glass art.
Cesar & Lois
Artists
Aesthetica Art Prize
Cesar & Lois advances intersections between natural and technological networks and often works alongside scientists to imagine new futures. Based in Brazil and California, the art duo consists of Lucy HG Solomon and Cesar Baio. Their work is shown in spaces across oceans, with exhibitions traveling from Stanford to Durban. Cesar & Lois received the 2018 Lumen Prize in AI and were selected for Singapore’s Global Digital Art Prize biennial in 2019 and as artists in residence at Coalesce in 2020.
Cig Harvey
Artist
Aesthetica 100 Panel
Cig Harvey seeks to find the magical in everyday life. Rich in implied narrative, Harvey’s work is deeply rooted in the natural environment, and offers explorations of belonging and familial relationships. She is the author of three sold-out books, You Look At Me Like An Emergency, Gardening at Night and You an Orchestra You a Bomb. Harvey is represented by Robert Mann Gallery in New York, Huxley-Parlour Gallery in London, Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles and more.
Cherie Federico
Director, Aesthetica
Hear from the Founders
Cherie is the Editor of Aesthetica Magazine and the Director of the BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF), Aesthetica Art Prize and Future Now Symposium. Originally from New York, Cherie moved to the UK in 2002 to study for her Masters degree and founded Aesthetica, which she has developed into an international brand distributed in 525 stores in the UK and exported to 20 countries. Cherie is a champion of new creative talent.
Chris Combs
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Chris Combs is an artist based in Washington, D.C who creates provocative technology. His first solo exhibition, Judging Me Judging You, at the DC Arts Center explored themes of surveillance and control, and his installation Maelstrom at Rhizome DC featured 35 machines spreading rumors about its visitors. He was a photo editor for National Geographic and is a graduate of the Corcoran College of Art + Design. He is part of this year’s Aesthetica Art Prize Shortlist.
Christiane Zschommler
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Born and brought up in East Berlin, Christiane Zschommler has lived in the UK since 1992 as a lens-based artist and lecturer in art and photography. Zschommler uses notebooks, her own photographs, documents and government statistics as starting point. She creates abstract images by obscuring the content, reducing them to fundamental shapes and forms. She does this until there are only traces of the original remaining. Zschommler is interested in the interplay between private and public realms.
Cindi Strauss
Curator, MFAH
Electrifying Design
Cindi Strauss is the Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design and Assistant Director, Programming at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has an MA from the Cooper-Hewitt/Parsons School of Design. At the MFAH, Strauss is responsible for the acquisition, research, publication and exhibition of post-1900 decorative arts, design and craft. She has authored or contributed to catalogues and journals on decorative arts and design topics and has been a lecturer.
Dale Donley
Production Director, Aesthetica
Hear from the Founders
Dale is the Production Director and Co-Founder of Aesthetica Magazine and the Aesthetica Short Film Festival. He spent his early career working as an artist and then moved into graphic design. Aesthetica was founded in 2002. He believes in strong aesthetics and powerful narratives that create a unique experience for the audience. Donley loves design and creativity that challenges people’s perception, continuing this design through all Aesthetica related enterprises.
David Brandy
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
David Brandy is a fine art photographer based in Toronto. He creates images of human-altered landscapes with a focus on persuading beautiful things to reveal their “strange”, and strange objects to bare their “beauty”. His work juxtaposes natural landscapes with solitary manmade structures to evoke a strong sense of isolation. He won an Emerging Artist award at the 2019 Toronto Outdoor Art Fair and was shortlisted for both the 2018 Quest Art and the 2017 Salt Spring National Art Prizes.
David Knight
Course Leader, University of the Arts London
Jane & Louise Wilson in Conversation
David Knight brings together a broad spectrum of skills to his professional practice as a director of photography and director. He has shot sequences for the 2012 Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, installations at Tate Modern and cinema, broadcast and online platforms in the UK, Europe and international territories. David’s recent collaboration with Amnesty International, the Protecting the Human series, was distributed at human rights festivals and at the U.S. Congress.
Denise Markonish
Senior Curator, MASS MoCa
Curating During a Time of Change
Denise Markonish is the senior curator and director of exhibitions at MASS MoCA. Her exhibitions include Glenn Kaino: In the Light of a Shadow; Suffering from Realness;Trenton Doyle Hancock, Mind of the Mound: Critical Mass; Nick Cave: Until; Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder; Teresita Fernández: As Above So Below; and Oh, Canada. She edited books Teresita Fernández: Wayfinding (DelMonico/Prestel) and co-edited Sol LeWitt: 100 Views (Yale University Press).
Devika Singh
Curator of International Art, Tate
Curating During a Time of Change
Devika Singh is Curator, International Art at Tate Modern. Her writing has appeared widely in exhibition catalogues, magazines and journals. She was Smuts Research Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies of the University of Cambridge and a fellow at the Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art in Paris. Exhibitions curated include Planetary Planning (Dhaka Art Summit, 2018) and Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan (Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 2019-2020).
Diane Smyth
Journalist
Women Street Photographers
Diane Smyth is a freelance journalist for publications such as The Guardian, Apollo, Aesthetica, Creative Review, Calvert Journal and British Journal of Photography. She has curated exhibitions for The Photographers’ Gallery and given talks at London Art Fair, Photo London, London College of Communication, European Month of Photography, Future Now and Circulation(s) Festival. Prior to going freelance, Smyth wrote and edited at the British Journal of Photography for 15 years.
Dirk Hardy
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Dirk Hardy is a Dutch visual artist based in The Hague. With his photographic works, Hardy welcomes us to a multitude of worlds. He explores the complexity of life through constructed tableaus. Each work unfolds a modest stage that invites collective reflection and dialogue to increase our social sensitivity. In the creation of his dioramas, Hardy draws from a web of observations, memories and imagination, and he responds to both large and small events in the world.
Drew Sawyer
Curator
Brooklyn Museum
Drew Sawyer is the Phillip Leonian and Edith Rosenbaum Leonian Curator at the Brooklyn Museum where he recently organised, or co-organised, exhibitions including JR: Chronicles, Garry Winogrand: Color, and Liz Johnson Artur: Dusha. Previously, he worked at the Museum of Modern Art and the Columbus Museum of Art, where he co-organised numerous exhibitions including Art after Stonewall, 1969-1989 for which the curatorial team received a 2020 Award for Excellence.
Ed Schad
Curator, The Broad
Shirin Neshat in Conversation
Ed Schad is Curator and Publications Manager at The Broad in Los Angeles. Most recently, he curated Shirin Neshat: I Will Greet the Sun Again. He also curated Carlos Cruz-Diez’s large public commission in Los Angeles, Couleur Additive. Ed’s writing has been included in Art Review, Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail and the Los Angeles Review of Books. In addition, he has contributed essays to mono-graphic catalogs on the work of Robert Irwin, Sterling Ruby, Kaz Oshiro and many others.
Ellie Davies
Photographer
Aesthetica 100 Panel
Ellie Davies lives in Dorset and works in the woods and forests of Southern England. She gained her MA in Photography from London College of Communication in 2008. She is represented by Crane Kalman Brighton Gallery in the UK, Patricia Armocida Gallery in Milan, Susan Spiritus Gallery in California, A.Galerie in Paris and Brussels and Brucie Collections in Kiev. In 2020, her work was at Photo London Digital and Art Paris. She has won awards with Magnum and the Aesthetica Art Prize.
Eliza Osborne
Deputy Director, The Armory Show
The Business of Art
Eliza Osborne oversees The Armory Show’s VIP Program, Sponsorships, and Armory Live Program. Prior to this, Eliza served as the Executive Director for the Centre Pompidou Foundation. She has held executive positions at Sotheby’s. She holds a M.A. in French Literature and a B.A. in Art History. In 2016, she was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to the arts in France. Eliza is speaking on the Business of Art panel at the Future Now Symposium 2021.
Eliza Williams
Editor, Creative Review
Curating During a Time of Change
Eliza Williams is Editor at Creative Review magazine, and a writer, critic and broadcaster on advertising and design. She also hosts the Creative Review Podcast. Williams has published two books via Laurence King, titled This Is Advertising and How 30 Great Ads Were Made, and has contributed texts to several books published by Phaidon, including The 21st Century Art Book and The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design. She has previously spoken on journalism at Future Now.
Erwin Redl
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Erwin Redl was born in Gföhl, Austria in 1963. He lives in Bowling Green, Ohio and New York. With an MFA in Computer Art and a BA in Music Composition from the University of Vienna, the artist expands his practice beyond the traditional Fine Art context. The scale of his installations very often reaches large, architectural dimensions. The artist’s work was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. In 2017, his large-scale kinetic light installation “Whiteout” was showcased at Madison Square Park in Manhattan.
Eva Langret
Artistic Director, Frieze London
The Business of Art
Eva Langret was appointed Artistic Director of Frieze London in 2019. In this role, she leads on the strategic development and artistic programme for the contemporary art fair. Other responsibilities include acting as a liaison for galleries, collectors and curators. Prior to this, she was a Director at London-based gallery Tiwani Contemporary, a Programme Manager at The Delfina Foundation and curator at 198 Gallery in Brixton. She is a member of the Chisenhale Council of the Chisenhale Gallery.
Eva Vonk
Creative Director, Tales of Us
Tales of Us
Eva Vonk is the Executive Producer and Creative Director for Tales of Us, a non-profit production company whose multi-media series Congo Tales brought a new story about the Congo rainforest and the people who live there to the world. She is the creator ofTales@Home, launching spring 2021, a free online home-schooling program for children that brings wisdom, creativity and ecological education from vital ecosystems around the globe into the homes of children all over the world.
Gabriel Hensche
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Gabriel Hensche follows a situational, conceptual and collaborative approach. Many of his moving image, installation and performance pieces investigate contemporary belief systems through echoing, altering and dispersing explanation models in order to explore possibilities for community and co-existence. These works were shown offline and online in museums, biennials, galleries, film festivals, residencies and public spaces. He has been directing manager of Campus Gegenwart since 2017.
Gabrielle Schwarz
Web Editor, Apollo Magazine
The Business of Art
Gabrielle Schwarz is Web Editor of Apollo magazine. Her own writing has covered topics from VR to gender inequality in the art market. She has interviewed numerous artists and thinkers in print, on podcasts and on live panels. Previously she was Programme and Curatorial Advisor at Hales Gallery, where she curated an exhibition of video art in New York in 2018. She is on the Jury for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021, selecting winners alongside other renowned art professionals and industry leaders.
George Byrne
Photographer
Cut, Paste, Post
George Byrne is a photographic artist based in Los Angeles. He creates large-scale images that depict everyday surfaces and landscapes as painterly abstractions. Byrne has a keen interest in modernist painting paired with a sharp compositional eye, which results in work that provides a fresh, contemporary perspective of the American landscape. Byrne is represented by numerous galleries. In November 2020, he released his debut monograph, titled Post Truth.
Gonçalo Fonseca
Photographer
Environmental Photography
Gonçalo Fonseca is a documentary photographer based in Lisbon, Portugal. Since 2017, he has worked on long term projects in Portugal, China and India. Gonçalo has dedicated himself, tirelessly, to shedding light on underreported topics and amplifying the voices of those he photographs. Recently, his ongoing body of work New Lisbon won the Leica Oskar Barnak Award – Newcomer. In 2020, he received the Yunghi Grant and the Estação Imagem Award – Daily Life, amongst other accolades.
Gulnara Samoilova
Photographer and Author
Women Street Photographers
Gulnara Samoilova is a photographer, author, and the founder of Women Street Photographers. With 40 years combined experience as a documentary and street photographer, artist, darkroom printer, photojournalist and photo editor, Samoilova transformed the successful Instagram feed, @WomenStreetPhotographers, into a platform for women photographers from around the globe. She has recently launched the new photography book, Women Street Photographers.
Harriet Cooper
Head of Visual Arts, Jerwood Arts
Artist Opportunities
Harriet Cooper is Head of Visual Arts at Jerwood Arts where she is responsible for developing and leading their visual arts work including projects, partnerships, funding, research and awards. She curates Jerwood Arts’ gallery programme, and recently developed the exhibition Jerwood Collaborate! which showcased new commissions by collectives. Prior to this, Harriet held roles at the British Council, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Tate Liverpool and The Whitworth Art Gallery.
Hassan Hajjaj
Artist
Playing with Tradition
Hassan Hajjaj is a Moroccan-British photographer. Blending the glossy aesthetic of fashion shoots with Moroccan tradition and street culture, his bold, detailed images challenge culture-specific beliefs, predominantly western perceptions of the Hijab and female disempowerment in Islam. His alluring, multi-layered compositions fuse contemporary North African culture with familiar western iconography. They do so through appropriation, subversion and adaption, blurring boundaries with patterns.
Héloise Winstone
Awards Production Manager, 1854 Media and BJP
Artist Opportunities
Héloise Winstone is the Awards Production Manager for 1854 Media and British Journal of Photography. Winstone works at the forefront of contemporary photography and is passionate about championing emerging talent. She has curated a number of high profile exhibitions, including Portrait of Britain (2018-2020), Portrait of Humanity (2020) and OpenWalls Arles (2019). She has produced a number of photobooks with international publishers and manages the awards programme for 1854 Media.
Henny Burnett
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Born in London, UK, artist Henny Burnett lives and works in Bristol and London. She attended Byam Shaw and Edinburgh Colleges of Art. She is a mixed media artist working mainly in sculpture and installation. Her process of working explores fragility of memory; it is rooted in the fabric of the home, yet presented in an historical context. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, undertaking residencies in Italy and Britain. She has won awards from Juliet Gomperts Trust and The British Council.
Holly Trusted (formerly Marjorie Trusted)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Breaking the Mould
Dr Marjorie Trusted FSA (also known as Holly Trusted) is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. A Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, she was previously Senior Curator of Sculpture at the V&A. She is co-founder and co-chair of the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, and founding editor of the Sculpture Journal. She has lectured and published widely on sculpture.
Holly Hendry
Sculptor
Breaking the Mould
Holly Hendry lives and works in London and teaches at the Slade School of Fine Art. She has exhibited internationally at institutions such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; and Sharjah Art Foundation. Hendry’s sculptures look at the back of things: architectural rear spaces and hidden bodily activities or situations. Through scale and material manipulation, she addresses concerns of permeability and morbidity.
Ian Volner
Author & Critic
Cut, Paste, Post
Ian Volner is an author and critic. He has contributed articles on architecture, art and design to The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Architectural Digest and The New Yorker online, among other publications. Ian is a contributing editor at Architect. His previous books include Philip Johnson: A Visual Biography (Phaidon, 2020), which explores the architect’s life and career. Other works include The Great Great Wall (Abrams, 2019). He lives in the Bronx.
Jack Addis
Director, Lumen Art Projects
Artist Opportunities
Jack has nine years’ experience working in the digital arts. As Director of Lumen Art Projects, he works closely to create relationships with varied partners to build opportunities for artists around the world. Since joining Lumen in 2016, he has curated exhibitions in the UK, USA, Russia and China. Jack manages Lumen’s partnerships with the Barbican Centre, Tate Modern, Eureka! Museum, Leeds International Festival, Brighton Digital Festival, CYLAND Media Artlab amongst others.
Jane Wilson
Filmmaker and Artist
In Conversation
Jane and Louise Wilson, RA Elect, have been working as an artist duo in collaboration for over two decades since their joint postgraduate degree from Goldsmiths College in 1992. Jane and Louise have gained both national and international reputation as artists who create haunting installations using film, photography, sculpture and sound, exploring politics, surveillance and conflict. They are appointed as joint Professors of Fine Art at Newcastle University, and, in 1999, they were nominated for The Turner Prize.
Jakob Kudsk Steensen
Artist
Digital Ecologies: Three-Dimensional Storytelling
Jakob Kudsk Steensen is an artist working with environmental storytelling through 3D animation, sound and immersive installations. He creates poetic interpretations about overlooked natural phenomena through collaborations with field biologists, composers and writers. Projects are based on extensive fieldwork. Key collaborators include Michael Riesman, Composer and Musical Director for the Philip Glass Ensemble; Architect Sir David Adjaye OBE RA; and the Natural History Museum.
James Tapscott
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
James Tapscott is a contemporary land artist and pioneer of experimental light. His work is primarily outdoors, and site-responsive. His collaborative approach to working with a particular site creates a carefully constructed sensory experience for the viewer. The experience is designed to be subliminal, non-objective, and to create a heightened understanding of natural phenomena and our ability to transcend traditional modes of perception. Shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2021.
Jean Paul Sebuhayi
Principal, MASS Design Group
Architecture of the Future: Award-Winning Design
Jean Paul Sebuhayi joined MASS in 2013 and currently serves as a Principal in the Kigali office. At MASS, Sebuhayi has led multidisciplinary teams to create sustainable designs for different projects including the Regional Centre of Excellence in Biomedical Engineering and eHealth, the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture and Samajik Health Science Institute & Research Centre, Bangladesh. A registered architect, he holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the Kigali Institute.
Dr Jennifer Good
Senior Lecturer, London College of Communication
Documentary & Ethics: When Is it Your Story to Tell?
Dr Jennifer Good is a writer and Senior Lecturer in the history and theory of photojournalism and documentary photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. She is the author of Photography and September 11th: Spectacle, Memory, Trauma (Bloomsbury, 2015) co-author of Understanding Photojournalism (Bloomsbury, 2017) and co-editor of Mythologizing the Vietnam War: Visual Culture and Mediated Memory (CSP, 2014).
www.arts.ac.uk
Jess Crombie
Course Leader, London College of Communication
Documentary & Ethics: When Is it Your Story to Tell?
Jess is the co-course leader on the Photojournalism & Documentary Photography BA at LCC (UAL), and a consultant for the humanitarian sector. Jess helps NGOs deliver their stories powerfully and ethically, conducting research that looks at what the people who feature in these images think about the process. Jess co-authored The People in the Pictures and is currently researching with Save the Children. Jess has founded a working group to bring about change and move towards more ethical practices.
www.arts.ac.uk
Juliana Kasumu
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Juliana Kasumu is an artist who utilises film, photography, and site-specific installation to engage in interpersonal speculation regarding identity production. Presented are critical ideas which challenge existing epistemologies of transculturalism within West Africa and the diaspora. Kasumu’s work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Centre, McKenna Museum of African American Art, Antenna Gallery, Getty Images Gallery, Victoria, Albert Museum and ASFF.
Karen Shepherdson
London College of Communication
Documentary & Ethics: When Is it Your Story to Tell?
Karen Shepherdson is a recognised academic researcher and practitioner within the field of photography. Shepherdson has forged strong links with national institutions and has curated several exhibitions, including the 2019 Seaside Photographed (co-curated with Val Williams), which is on UK tour throughout 2021. Shepherdson is the UK and Europe editor for the Journal of Photography and Culture. Her research interests centre around the representation of communities and the concept of place and space.
www.arts.ac.uk
Karin Rehn-Kaufmann
Chief Representative, Leica Galleries
Environmental Photography
Karin Rehn-Kaufmann holds management responsibility for the 25 Leica Galleries around the world. She has successfully curated a lot of prestigious exhibitions worldwide, including an exclusive collection of images by the US Magnum photographer Elliot Erwitt. She has been a member of the jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Award since 2008. Karin has played a significant role in the organisation and further development of the prestigious photography competition.
Kate Simpson
Associate Editor, Aesthetica
Celebrating 100 Issues
Kate Simpson is Associate Editor of Aesthetica Magazine, having joined the team in 2016. She works across digital and print platforms, producing curated content for international readerships of over 550,000+, showcasing both established and emerging artists. Simpson has also been involved in a number of editorial initiatives and related projects including The Future Now Symposium, The Aesthetica Art Prize and BAFTA-Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
Kay Watson
Arts Technologies Curator, Serpentine Galleries
Digital Ecologies: Three-Dimensional Storytelling
Kay Watson is a researcher, producer and curator working with art and advanced technologies, photography and video games. She is currently Arts Technologies Curator at Serpentine Galleries and a PhD researcher at Birkbeck, University of London. Recent projects include The Serpentine Podcast and Hito Steyerl, Actual Reality OS. Kay has also worked at the Contemporary Art Society, The Photographers’ Gallery, Art Night with the ICA, and has an MA in History of Art with Photography.
Kit Monkman
Artist & Film Director
KMA
Kit Monkman is a leading innovator in screen-based art and interactive media. He directed the visually experimental feature Macbeth and co-directed The Knife That Killed Me. He is also co-founder of KMA – an artistic collaboration that specialises in environmental installations – whose works have dramatically transformed public spaces across the world. Kit has worked with Prince and DV8, an been involved in several Aesthetica events. The work is driven by an interest in interaction.
Kitoko Diva
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Kitoko Diva’s hybrid practice between moving images, installations and sound creates immersive video installations interacting with identity, heritage and social structures through a surrealism lens. Her work challenges contemporary socio-political economic issues by building alternative landscapes and substitutes realities with new forms of cinematography traversing space and time to redefine what you think you know about yourself, the world and your history.
Kovo N’Sondé
Philosopher
Tales of Us
Steve Regis “Kovo” N’Sondé is an Afropean philosopher based in Paris and Berlin. N’Sondé – along with his brother, Wilfried — adapted the Congolese myths and legends that form the basis of the multi-media project, Congo Tales. A world-renowned authority on Congolese oral traditions, N’Sondé helped curate and translate the stories from the region for Congo Tales in order to share them with the world. Kovo has appeared in the New York Times and on PBS Newshour.
Kriss Munsya
Artist
Reclaiming the Lens
Kriss Munsya is a Congolese born visual artist currently living in Vancouver BC. He grew up in Brussels, Belgium, in the 1990s. As a first generation African immigrant, Kriss was confronted consistently with normalised, and often violent, racism. These experiences fed his vision of the world and himself within it. A self-taught artist with experience in photography, graphic design, music and video, he focuses on creating conceptual work informed by experiences with racial discrimination.
Kyung An
Associate Curator, Guggenheim Museum
Curating During a Time of Change
Kyung An, Ph.D, is Associate Curator, Asian Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, where she plays a significant role in the research, presentation and collection of Asian and Asian-diaspora artists. Currently, she is organising an exhibition on experimental art in South Korea. Previous exhibitions include Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World (2017–8). Published extensively, An coauthored Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art?, translated into six languages.
Lindsey Raymond
Gallery Manager, WHATIFTHEWORLD
Beyond Each Horizon is Another
Lindsey Raymond is the Gallery Manager at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town. She is also an independent editor, researcher and culture writer, having written for artists based in South Africa, Nigeria, Canada and London. She has edited for institutions such as the Smithsonian, Washington; Hayward Gallery, London; and the Norval Foundation, Cape Town. Her interests lie within virtual media; popular culture; feminist and queer art practices; futures/non-futures.
www.whatiftheworld.com
Luca Locatelli
Photographer
Environmental Photography
Luca Locatelli is an environmental photographer and filmmaker focused on the relations between people, science, technology and the environment. Luca is a National Geographic Magazine photographer and contributor to international media such as The New York Times Magazine, TIME, The New Yorker and more. His photographs have been shown at Guggenheim Museum, New York; Somerset House, London; and Les Rencontres d’Arles. He is a Leica Oscar Barnack Award 2020 Winner.
Louise Wilson
Filmmaker and Artist
In Conversation
Jane and Louise Wilson, RA Elect, have been working as an artist duo in collaboration for over two decades since their joint postgraduate degree from Goldsmiths College in 1992. Jane and Louise have gained both national and international reputation as artists who create haunting installations using film, photography, sculpture and sound, exploring politics, surveillance and conflict. They are appointed as joint Professors of Fine Art at Newcastle University, and, in 1999, they were nominated for The Turner Prize.
Maïmouna Guerresi
Multimedia Artist
Environmental Photography
Maïmouna Guerresi is an Italian-Senegalese multimedia artist who works with photography, sculpture, video and installations. Her practice reflects different perspectives on her two cultures: European and African, linked to Sufi spirituality. She has shown work globally: at Stedelijk Museum, Rotterdam; Smithsonian African Art Museum, Washington; LACMA Museum, Los Angeles. Maïmouna has participated in festivals including the Venice Biennale and Documenta Kassel.
Margot Norton
Curator, New Museum
Curating During a Time of Change
Margot Norton is Curator at the New Museum, New York. She is currently working on a Lynn Hershman Leeson exhibition and the 2021 New Museum Triennial, co-curated with Jamillah James. She recently curated exhibitions with Carmen Argote, Diedrick Brackens, Sarah Charlesworth, Sarah Lucas, Mika Rottenberg and Kaari Upson and the Georgian Pavillion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Before she joined the New Museum in 2011, Norton worked as Curatorial Assistant at the Whitney Museum.
Mary-Alice Stack
Chief Executive, Creative United
The Business of Art
Mary-Alice Stack is Chief Executive of Creative United, a company committed to supporting the growth and development of the arts and creative industries across the UK. It has a particular focus on the contemporary visual arts market. Prior to this, she worked for Arts Council England as development manager for the Own Art interest free credit scheme, an initiative that is now one of Creative United’s flagship programmes supporting over £5.5m worth of contemporary art sales each year.
Michael Green
Principal, MGA|Michael Green Architecture
Architecture of the Future: Award-Winning Design
Michael Green is an award-winning architect known for his research, leadership and advocacy in promoting the use of wood, new technology and innovation in the built environment. He lectures internationally, including his TED talk Why We Should Build Wooden Skyscrapers. Based in Vancouver, Canada, Michael founded MGA to create meaningful and sustainable change in building. He is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and has been honoured with prestigious awards.
Monica Alcazar-Duarte
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Monica Alcazar-Duarte is a British-Mexican cultural interventionist non-fiction photographer. Her way of thinking and seeing has been deeply influenced by being a migrant. Alcazar-Duarte’s work explores change, and repeatedly confronts the human obsession with speed, growth and a better future. Her practice is inspired by the connection of people, the need for equality and the ever-shifting world. Through her work she presents the personal as a driving force to activate the collective.
Natalie Rudd
Senior Curator, Arts Council Collection
Breaking the Mould
Natalie Rudd is Senior Curator of the Arts Council Collection. Her curated projects include the forthcoming Arts Council Collection Touring Exhibition, Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945 (launching Spring 2021). Rudd has written widely on art including monographic texts on Peter Blake (Tate Publishing, 2003), Paul de Monchaux (Ridinghouse, 2019) and Veronica Ryan. Her book, The Self-Portrait, was published by Thames & Hudson as part of the Art Essentials series.
Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Multidisciplinary artist Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard considers his work to be a basic research in realities. Løkkegaard is interested in how bubble-like systems unfold themselves as human conditions. The meeting between the individual body and these different bubble-like systems are a key driver in Løkkegaard’s praxis. He’s interested in how to escape these bubbles, and how they can be warped, wrestled and renegotiated. He explores digitalisation, metadata, the Internet, patriarchy, capitalism or nationalism.
Paul Keskeys
Content Director, Architizer
Architecture of the Future: Award-Winning Design
Paul Keskeys is a UK architect, writer and editor based in New York City. Paul specialises in telling the complex stories behind contemporary architecture and cities. A graduate from UCL and the University of Edinburgh, Paul gained an MArch in Architectural Design and was nominated for the RIAS Silver Medal. Paul is currently Content Director at Architizer, and has been published in Architectural Digest, Archinect, OCULUS, PIN—UP Magazine, Aesthetica Magazine and PUBLIC Journal.
Pratāp Rughani
Professor, London College of Communication
Documentary & Ethics: When Is it Your Story to Tell?
Pratāp Rughani is a documentary filmmaker and Professor of Documentary Practices at LCC. He filmed during periods of tension and emergence from conflict including in South Africa, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Aboriginal Australia, India and US/UK. Pratāp’s documentary work spans broadcast (BBC 2 / Channel 4) & commissions for The British Council, Modern Art Oxford and NGOs. He is particularly interested in how documentary can develop deeper listening and dialogue.
Permindar Kaur
Artist
Breaking the Mould
Permindar Kaur is a sculpture and installation artist, whose approach to art is playful, using childlike objects to explore the territory of cultural identity, home and belonging. Kaur has exhibited internationally including solo shows at Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; and Mead Gallery, University of Warwick. She has featured in group exhibitions at Turner Contemporary and Tate, London. Her current show, Home, is at 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
Rachel Kent
Chief Curator, MCA Australia
New Australian Art
Rachel Kent leads the MCA curatorial team, and delivers key initiatives including the annual Sydney International Art Series. She has worked with artists such as Yoko Ono, Grayson Perry, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Tatsuo Miyajima, David Goldblatt, Cornelia Parker and, forthcoming, Doug Aitken. Rachel’s exhibitions have been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, New York; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC and more. Rachel has spoken widely, including with TEDx.
Rand Suffolk
Director, High Museum of Art
Curating During a Time of Change
Since arriving at High Museum in 2015, Suffolk has championed a renewed commitment to community engagement, placing emphasis on collaboration, inclusivity and access. The High has reduced admission fees; greatly diversified its exhibition schedule; added more than 3000 objects to the collection; developed a variety of new programs to serve its diverse, multi-generational audience; and completed a sweeping 2018 complete reinstallation of the Museum’s collection galleries.
Rana Begum
Artist
Breaking the Mould
Born in Bangladesh in 1977, London-based artist Rana Begum distills spatial and visual experience into ordered form. Through her refined language of Minimalist abstraction, Begum blurs the boundaries between sculpture, painting and architecture. Her visual language draws from the urban landscape as well as geometric patterns from traditional Islamic art and architecture. Light is fundamental to her process. Her works absorb and reflect varied densities of light. Begum was recently elected an RA.
Sarah Allen
Assistant Curator, Tate Modern
Curating During a Time of Change
Sarah Allen is Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern where she curates exhibitions and displays and researches acquisitions for the collection. She has recently co-curated the major touring survey of Zanele Muholi (2020) as well as displays from the permanent collection including Nan Goldin, Irving Penn and David Goldblatt. Further exhibitions include The Shape of Light (2018); Sophie Taeuber-Arp (forthcoming, 2021) and The Turbine Hall Commission (forthcoming, 2022).
Sarah Meister
Curator, Museum of Modern Art
Curating During a Time of Change
In May 2021 Sarah Meister will become the Executive Director of Aperture. She has been a Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art since 2009, where most recently she organised Fotoclubismo: Brazilian Modernist Photography, 1946-1964 (opening May 8) and Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures (2020). Other recent publications and projects have considered the work of Gordon Parks, Luigi Ghirri, Frances Benjamin Johnston, and the 1967 exhibition New Documents.
www.moma.org
Sarah Monk
Director of Events, Immediate Media
Artist Opportunities
Sarah Monk is the Director of the Art, Craft and Design Events Portfolio for Immediate Media, which includes London Art Fair, New Designers and The Festival of Quilts. Sarah was Director of London Art Fair from 2014 – 2020 and remains responsible for its delivery and long term development. Established in 1989, London Art Fair connects over 130 leading galleries from around the world with collectors, providing a unique opportunity to discover and champion the best in contemporary art.
Sarah Schleuningr
Interim Chief Curator, Dallas Museum of Art
Electrifying Design
Sarah Schleuning is the Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design and interim Chief Curator at the Dallas Museum of Art. Schleuning oversees the decorative arts and design collection, internationally recognised as one of the foremost decorative arts collections in the US, comprising more than 8,000 works of art. She was the curator of the groundbreaking exhibition speechless: different by design and co-curator of Electrifying Design: A Century of Lighting.
Seb Agnew
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Seb Agnew is a photo artist specialising in staged and often dreamlike sceneries which explore the human psyche and our modern society. Disorientation, momentary solitude and lonesome reflection are recurring themes within Agnew’s conceptual body of work. His images are strongly characterised by elaborate set design, distinctive lighting and carefully arranged composition. In order to create his surreal, mysterious and cinematic settings, Seb transforms whole rooms or builds miniature sets.
Shan Wu
Artist
Aesthetica Art Prize
Shan Wu is a US-based Taiwanese independent filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist working in video, photography, sculpture and installation. She is based between Taipei, Los Angeles, and Massachusetts. She investigates gender and cultural identity, nationality, language, and site-specificity through experimental and conceptual approach. Her recent work focuses on the use-or-misuse of technology on censorship and its connection to Taiwanese identity, as well as the humans and nature.
Shirin Neshat
Artist and Filmmaker
In Conversation
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian-born artist and filmmaker living in New York. In 2019, Neshat was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles. She has mounted numerous solo shows at museums internationally, including: the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Serpentine Gallery, London. Neshat was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Biennale di Venezia, and Best Director at Venice International Film Festival.
Skinder Hundal
Director of Arts, British Council
Cultural Relations
Skinder Hundal recently joined as the Director of Arts at British Council, the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. Hundal was previously Director at New Art Exchange, Nottingham, an award winning contemporary arts space, representing diaspora and international contemporary art in the UK. Hundal’s passion is to think and deliver the new, with programmes such as African Soldier, with artist John Akomfrah.
Susan van Wyk
Senior Curator of Photography, NGV
New Australian Art
Since joining the NGV, Susan van Wyk has worked on more than 60 exhibitions of Australian and international photography. Over a 30-year career, van Wyk has written numerous catalogues and contributed to journals on photography. She is the author of a number of books including Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou, No Standing Only Dancing, and The Paris End: Photography Fashion and Glamour. In 2020, Susvan Wykn was part of the curatorial team for major 2020 NGV Triennial.
Sophie Wright
Art Consultant
Images that Change the Way We See the World
Sophie Wright is an independent photography & art consultant with over 20 years’ experience in creative direction, strategy and sales for artists and collections. Formerly Global Cultural Director at Magnum Photos, book projects include Magnum Contact Sheets (2011) and Magnum China (2018) with Thames & Hudson. She regularly mentors emerging photographers, is a contributor to numerous publications including FOAM and BJP. She is on the Board of the Journal of Photography and Culture.
Touria El Glaoui
Founder, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
The Business of Art
Born and raised in Morocco, Touria El Glaoui completed her education in New York. She initiated 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in 2013 after relocating to London. She has since launched the fair in New York in 2015 and Marrakech in 2018. 1-54 is now a world-leading platform dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. She iss listed amongst the 50 most powerful women in Africa, and is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française.
Yannis Davy Guibinga
Photographer
Aesthetica 100 Panel
Yannis Davy Guibinga is a photographer from Libreville, Gabon, currently based in Montréal. In order to contribute to a change in narratives about the continent, Yannis Davy Guibinga has found in photography a strength and a tool – allowing him to celebrate and represent the many cultures on the African continent and its diaspora. Guibinga has worked with Apple and Nikon, and has exhibited internationally, featuring on CNN Africa, I-D, Condé Nast Traveler and more.
Dr. Zoé Whitley
Director, Chisenhale Gallery
Curating During a Time of Change
Dr. Zoé Whitley is director of Chisenhale Gallery in London, a leading non-profit space founded by artists. In 2019-2020, Zoé curated for Frieze London, the Venice Biennale and Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. She writes widely on contemporary art, whilst serving on the 2020-21 Arts Council Collection committee. Zoé is also board member of Creative Access, the only UK organisation dedicated to recruiting under-represented talent. Prior curating roles include Tate and V&A.