Ireland Invites: Hoor Al Qasimi

IRELAND INVITES seeks to enhance international exposure for Irish visual artists by hosting biennale curators to undertake visits to studio and art institutions in Ireland. During their visit curators will have the opportunity to enhance their understanding of contemporary art practices in Ireland availing of the curatorial expertise of IMMA, Hugh Lane Gallery and Culture Ireland, who will facilitate research and create bespoke hosted trips for each visiting curator.

Hoor Al Qasimi is President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, the public art institution she established in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, UAE, and around the world. With a passion for supporting experimentation and innovation in the arts, Al Qasimi has continuously expanded the scope of the Foundation to include major international touring exhibitions; artist and curator residencies in visual art, film and music; commissions and production grants for emerging artists; publications and publication grants; performance and film festivals; architectural research and restoration; and a wide range of educational programming in Sharjah for all age groups.

Al Qasimi was curator of the critically acclaimed Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present (2023). In 2003, she co-curated Sharjah Biennial 6 and has remained Biennial Director ever since. Under her leadership, Sharjah Biennial has become an internationally recognised platform for contemporary artists, curators and cultural producers. Her leadership in the field led to her election as President of the International Biennial Association (IBA) in 2017, an appointment that transferred IBA’s headquarters to Sharjah. In addition to her role at the Foundation, Al Qasimi also serves as President of The Africa Institute, Sharjah; President and Director of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial; and Creative Director of the London-based fashion brand QASIMI. In 2025, she will serve as Artistic Director of the sixth Aichi Triennale, becoming the first person to be chosen for the role from outside of Japan. The following year, she will curate the 25th Biennale of Sydney (7 March to 8 June 2026) as Artistic Director.

Al Qasimi has curated major solo exhibitions at Sharjah Art Foundation, including Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations (2024); CAMP: Passages through Passages (2022); Khalil Rabah: What is not (2022); Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11 (2020–2021); Zarina Bhimji: Black Pocket (2020–2021); Amal Kenawy: Frozen Memory (2018–2019); the major retrospective Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist (2017–2018), which travelled to KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2020), Malmö Konsthall, Sweden (2020–2021) and the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Saint-Étienne, France (2021); Yayoi Kusama: Dot Obsessions (2016–2017); and Robert Breer: Time Flies (2016–2017). Other notable projects at the Foundation include 1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, originally curated for the UAE Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015), and the solo exhibitions Simone Fattal (2016), Farideh Lashai (2016), Rasheed Araeen: Before and After Minimalism (2014) and Susan Hefuna: Another Place (2014). Among her co-curated exhibitions in Sharjah are William Kentridge: A Shadow of a Shadow (2024); Antonio Dias: The Search for an Open Enigma (2024); Emily Karaka: Ka Awatea, A New Dawn (2024); Lala Rukh: In the Round (2024); The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (2024); The Otolith Group: Xenogenesis (2021–2022); and The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan (1945–present) (2016–2017).

Al Qasimi curated the second Lahore Biennale (2020) and Dream Projects (2023) as part of the ninth Dream City Festival in Tunis. International exhibitions she has co-curated include Kamala Ibrahim Ishag: States of Oneness at Serpentine Gallery, London (2022–2023)—built upon a previous exhibition of Ishag’s work she co-curated for Sharjah Art Foundation (2016–2017—which travelled to Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam (2019–2020); Bani Abidi: The Man Who Talked Until He Disappeared at MCA Chicago (2021–2022), which followed Bani Abidi: Funland at Sharjah Art Foundation (2019); the landmark exhibition Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige: Two Suns in a Sunset (2016), which debuted in Sharjah and travelled to Jeu de Paume, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and IVAM, Valencia; and When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists (1938–1965), Palace of Arts, Cairo (2016), and MMCA, Korea (2017).

Al Qasimi is Chair of the Advisory Board for the College of Fine Arts and Design, University of Sharjah, and a member of the advisory boards for Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi; Darat al Funun, Amman; Independent Film Council, ICA, London; and the Eye Art & Film Prize Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam (2022–2024). She serves on the Board of Directors for Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, and was appointed President of the Alliance Française of Sharjah in 2023.

Previously, she served on the boards of MoMA PS1, New York (2010–2021); Kunst-Werke Berlin e. V.; and the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013–2016). She was also a member of the Prince Claus Award Committee (2016–2020) and took part in juries and prize panels for the Joan Miró Prize (2023), the MAXXI Bulgari Prize (2022), PinchukArtCentre’s fifth edition of the Future Generation Art Prize (2019), Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art (2019), Maria Lassnig Prize (2017), Mediacity Seoul Prize (2016), Hepworth Wakefield Prize for Sculpture (2016), Berlin International Film Festival–Berlinale Shorts (2016), Videobrasil (2015), Dubai International Film Festival (2014) and Benesse Prize (2013).

Al Qasimi holds an MA in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art, London (2008). She earned a diploma in painting from the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005), and received a BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002). She also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK (2023).

In 2023, Al Qasimi was appointed head of Sharjah’s newly established Global Studies University, consisting of the College of African Studies and The Africa Institute, College of Asian Studies and Asia Institute, and College of European Studies and Europe Institute.

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