Gilane Tawadros

Gilane Tawadros is the Chief Executive of DACS, a not-for-profit visual artists rights management organization and is Co-Director of the Art360 Foundation which she established in 2016 with Mark Waugh. She is a curator and writer and was the founding Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London, chaired by Professor Stuart Hall, which, over a decade, achieved an international reputation as a ground-breaking cultural agency at the leading edge of artistic and cultural debates nationally and internationally. She has written extensively on contemporary art and curated a number of international exhibitions. She was the first art historian to be appointed to the Blanche, Edith and Irving Laurie Chair in Women’s Studies, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, USA. She is Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation and Trustee of the Stuart Croft Foundation. Her forthcoming anthology The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon: Global Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Difference is published by Bloomsbury.

Selected Exhibitions

• Shooting Performance: Edward Woodman and British Art of the 1980s and 1990s, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, 2017.

• Anya Gallaccio, Courtyard Commission, in collaboration with Del Buono Gazerwitz, DACS, London 2016.

• Raul Ortega Ayala: Extra Extra, DACS, London, 2010.

• Transmission Interrupted, (with Susan Cotter), Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 2009. Artists: Adel Abdessemed, Pilar Albarracin, Yto Barrada, Mircea Cantor, Jem Cohen, Jimmie Durham, Simryn Gill, Julia Melzer & David Thorne, Lia Perjovschi, Michael Rakowitz, Ernesto Salmeron, Yara El-Sherbini, Sislej Xhafa.

• Alien Nation, (with John Gill and Jens Hoffman), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2006), Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester and Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, (2007). Artists: Laylah Ali, Hamad Butt, Edgar Cleijne, Ellen Gallagher, David Huffman, Hew Locke, Henna Nadeem, Kori Newkirk, Marepe, Yinka Shonibare, Eric Wesley and Mario Ybarra Jr.

• Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and various venues across the South East, 2006. Artists: Adel Abdessemed, Richard Avedon, David Claerbout, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Paul Fusco, Alfredo Jaar, Gabriel Kuri, Henna Nadeem, Richard Misrach, Fiona Tan, Van Leo, Andy Warhol.

• The Real Me, (part of ‘London in Six Easy Steps’), Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 2005. Artists: Rasheed Araeen, Black Audio Film Collective, Sonia Boyce, Mona Hatoum, Barbara Kruger, Don Letts, Robert Mapplethorpe, Mitra Tabrizian.

• Omer Fast: Godville, Institute of International Visual Arts, London, 2005.

• David Adjaye: Length x Width x Height, Site-specific installation, London, 2005.

• Sutapa Biswas: Birdsong, Café Gallery Projects, London; Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham; Leeds City Art Gallery & Harewood House, Leeds and Douglas F. Cooley Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, 2004 onwards.

• Fault Lines: Contemporary African Art and Shifting Landscapes, 50th Venice Bienniale, Venice, 2003. Artists: Laylah Ali, Kader Attia, Samta Benyahia, Zarina Bhimji, Frank Bowling, Clifford Charles, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Hassan Fathy, Salem Mekuria, Moshekwa Langa, Sabah Naim, Moataz Nasr and Wael Shawky.

• Veil (with David A Bailey, Janane Al-Ani and Zineb Sedira), New Art Gallery, Walsall; Bluecoat Art Gallery & Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool; Modern Art, Oxford; Kulturehuset, Stockholm, 2003 onwards. Artists: Faisal Abdu’Allah, Kourush Adim, AES Art Group, Janane Al-Ani, Ghada Amer, Farah Bajull, Samta Benyahia, Gaetan de Clerambault, Marc Garanger, Shadafarin Ghadirian, Ghazel, Emily Jacir, Ramesh Kalkur, MJID Khattari, Shirin Neshat, Harold Offeh, Gillo Pontecorvo, Zineb Sedira, Elin Strand, Mitra Tabrizian. Modern Art, Oxford; Kulturehuset, Stockholm, 2003 onwards.

• Shen Yuan, Arnolfini, Bristol & Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2001.

• Yinka Shonibare: Diary of a Victorian Dandy, Site-specific installation, various London Underground sites, London, 1998.

• Solo exhibitions by Victor Grippo, Mona Hatoum, David Medalla, Carl Cheng, as part of A Quality of Light, Tate Gallery St. Ives and Newlyn Art Gallery, 1997.

• Keith Piper: Relocating the Remains, Royal College of Art & other sites, 1997.

Selected Writings and Publications

• The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon: Global Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Difference, London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

• The Stuart Brisley Interviews: Performance and its Afterlives, London: Book works, 2020.

• 'Art and Language’ in Jimmie Durham: Festschrift (ed. Maria Thereza Alves), Rome: Nero, 2020.

• ‘Sunken Stories: Recent Works by Zineb Sedira’ in Zineb Sedira: A Brief Moment, Paris: Jeu de Paume, 2019.

• ‘Chiselled from Pastel: The Work of Claudette Johnson’, in Claudette Johnson: I Came to Dance, Oxford: Modern Art Oxford, 2019.

• ‘Photographing in Time: The Art of Edward Woodman’, in Edward Woodman: The Artist’s Eye (eds. Gilane Tawadros and Judy Adam), London: Art/Books in association with Art360 Foundation and John Hansard Gallery, 2018.

• The New Economy of Art: Value, patronage and emerging business models in contemporary visual art (ed. with Russell Martin), Artquest and DACS, London, 2014.

• Transmission Interrupted (with Suzanne Cotter), Oxford: Modern Art Oxford, 2009.

• Life is More Important Than Art, London: Ostrich, 2007.

• Alien Nation with John Gill and Jens Hoffman, London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, Institute of International Visual Arts and Hatje Cantz, 2006.

• Veil: Veiling, Representation and Contemporary Art (with David A. Bailey), London and Oxford: Institute of International Visual Arts, London and Modern Art, Oxford, 2003.

• ‘Gilane Tawadros and Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation’ in The Producers: Contemporary Curators in Conversation (2), Newcastle: Baltic and University of Newcastle, 2000.

• Sonia Boyce: Speaking in Tongues, London: Kala Press, 1997.

• Boxer: an anthology of writings on boxing and contemporary visual arts practice with David Chandler, John Gill and Tania Guha, London and Boston: Institute of International Visual Arts & MIT Press, 1996.