Zoé Whitley

Zoé Whitley
Born	(1979-12-30) 30 December 1979 (age 44) Washington, D.C.
Education	Swarthmore College (BA) Royal College of Art (MA) University of Central Lancashire (PhD)
Occupation(s)	Art historian, curator, museum director
Employer	Chisenhale Gallery

Zoé Whitley (born 30 December 1979) is an American art historian and curator who has been director of Chisenhale Gallery since 2020. Based in London, she has held curatorial positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate galleries, and the Hayward Gallery. At the Tate galleries, Whitley co-curated the 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which ARTnews called one of the most important art exhibitions of the 2010s. Soon after she was chosen to organise the British pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Whitley's research interests include contemporary artists and art practices from Africa and the African diaspora.

Early life and education

Zoé Whitley was born in Washington, D.C., on 30 December 1979.^[1] Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, when she was a teenager. In high school, she took classes on art history and studio art.^[2][3] She has recalled taking a trip to the Getty Villa around the time because her parents could not afford to send her on a school trip to Europe.^[4]

Whitley attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she studied art history and French.^[3] For her first assignment on contemporary art, Whitley recounted basing her essay on the thoughts that a Black security guard working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art gave her about Nigredo (1984), a painting by Anselm Kiefer: "Everything that ended up in my essay, which my art-history professor said was really excellent, came from what he was able to share with me."^[4]

While attending Swarthmore, in 1999, Whitley completed an internship at the costume and textiles department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.^[2] There, department head Sharon Takeda and her colleague, Kaye Spilker, recommended Whitley become a curator.^[2] On their advice, Whitley studied at the Royal College of Art in London after graduating from Swarthmore in 2001, and earned a master's degree in design history.^[2][5] Her master's thesis examined Black representation in Vogue magazine. She earned a PhD from the University of Central Lancashire with British artist and curator Lubaina Himid.^[3]

Career

Whitley started her career at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2003. For two years, Whitley worked as an assistant curator in the museum's prints section. She then became a curator in 2005.^[6] In 2007, she organised Uncomfortable Truths, an exhibition that commemorated the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade.^[7] The exhibition examined traces of the slave trade in contemporary art and design.^[2] In 2013, she stepped down from her position to begin a PhD at the University of Central Lancashire. As an independent curator, she co-curated the Afrofuturism-focused exhibition The Shadows Took Shape at the Studio Museum in Harlem.^[3]

Tate, 2013–2019

In 2013, Whitley joined the Tate galleries. Between 2013 and 2015, she held dual curatorial positions at Tate Britain and Tate Modern as curator in international art and curator of contemporary British art, respectively. After April 2017, the focus of her work became international art and the collection of Tate Modern.^[6] With Mark Godfrey, she co-curated the 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which examined the response of more than sixty artists in America to the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent Black Power movement.^[2][8][9] The exhibition, according to Whitley, emphasised "art and artists, rather than a social history of art and ephemera," and includes works by Frank Bowling, Betye Saar, and Barkley L. Hendricks.^[9] ARTnews described Soul of a Nation as one of the most important art exhibitions of the 2010s.^[10] The Association of Art Museum Curators awarded Whitley one of its 2020 Curatorial Awards for Excellence for the exhibition.^[11]

Hayward Gallery, 2019–2020

In 2019, Whitley became senior curator of the Hayward Gallery.^[12] Her first and last exhibition at the Hayward was Reverb: Sound into Art, an exhibition that featured sound art by Christine Sun Kim, Kahlil Joseph, and Oliver Beer.^[2]

Also in 2019, Whitley was the curator of the British pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, which featured an exhibition of sculptural installations, paintings, and prints by Cathy Wilkes. She became the first African American curator to organize a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale.^[13][14]

Chisenhale Gallery, 2020–present

In 2020, Whitley was appointed director of Chisenhale Gallery.^[15] With Nancy Ireson, Whitley co-curated Elijah Pierce's America, a retrospective of the works of American woodcarver Elijah Pierce exhibited at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[16] Later that year, she oversaw Possessions, a section of the virtual "Frieze Viewing Room" that focuses on spirituality in contemporary art.^[17][18] In 2021, she was appointed to the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, a committee overseeing diversity in London's public monuments and its street and building names.^[19]

In 2021, Whitley chaired the jury that awarded the Museum Ludwig's 2022 Wolfgang Hahn Prize to Frank Bowling.^[20][21] Whitley worked on a children's book written by Sharna Jackson, Black Artists Shaping the World, which serves as an introduction to Black artists for young audiences.^[22] The book won the 2022 Information Book Award from the School Library Association.^[22]

In 2024, Whitley was part of the five-member jury that chose Ibrahim Mahama for the Dia Art Foundation's inaugural Sam Gilliam Award.^[23]

See also

• Women in the art history field

References

1. "Whitley, Dr Zoé, (born 30 Dec. 1979), Senior Curator, Hayward Gallery, since 2019". Who's Who. 2019. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U292581. ISBN 9780199540884.
2. Rea, Naomi (30 April 2020). "'She Wears Her Wisdom Lightly': How American Curator Zoé Whitley Became One of the UK's Most Influential Arts Leaders". Artnet News. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
3. Juliette, Harris (ed.). "Zoe Whitley's Art World". The International Review of African American Art Plus. Hampton University.
4. McLaughlin, Rosanna (23 March 2020). "Lunch with Zoé Whitley". frieze. No. 210. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
5. "Zoe Whitley '01 :: Celebrating Black Excellence". Swarthmore College. 27 August 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
6. "Zoe Whitley". Iniva People Directory. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
7. Wiseman, Eva (11 February 2007). "Rising star: Zoe Whitley, curator". The Observer. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
8. Hutton, Belle (10 June 2020). "Then and Now: Art in the Age of Black Power". Another Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
9. Pobric, Pac (11 July 2017). "Tate Modern chronicles the rise of Black Power in post-war America". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
10. Durón, Maximilíano; Greenberger, Alex (17 December 2019). "The Most Important Art Exhibitions of the 2010s". ARTnews. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
11. "René Paul Barilleaux and Zoé Whitley Among Recipients of Curatorial Awards for Excellence". Artforum. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
12. Greenberger, Alex (18 January 2019). "Zoé Whitley Named Senior Curator of Hayward Gallery in London". ARTnews. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
13. Valentine, Victoria L. (21 January 2020). "Zoé Whitley Tapped as Director of London's Chisenhale Gallery". Culture Type. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
14. Valentine, Victoria L. (15 April 2018). "The Week in African American Art: Zoé Whitley Named Curator of British Pavilion at 2019 Venice Biennale & More". Culture Type. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
15. Greenberger, Alex (17 January 2020). "Zoé Whitley, Star Curator Behind Acclaimed 'Soul of a Nation' Show, Named Director of London's Chisenhale Gallery". ARTnews. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
16. Hine, Thomas (25 September 2020). "A glorious Elijah Pierce exhibit at the Barnes Foundation brings us temptation, salvation, grace". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
17. Mitchell, Rory (7 October 2020). "Frieze Viewing Room: Ten Advisory Selections". Ocula Magazine. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
18. Spence, Rachel (2 October 2020). "Zoé Whitley – bringing spirituality to Frieze Viewing Room". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
19. Harris, Gareth (9 February 2021). "Actor Riz Ahmed and Chisenhale director Zoé Whitley selected for new commission to diversify London's public monuments". The Art Newspaper. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
20. Wolfgang Hahn Prize Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig Köln.
21. Tessa Solomon (26 October 2021), Frank Bowling Wins Museum Ludwig’s Wolfgang Hahn Prize ARTnews.
22. Bayley, Sian (22 November 2022). "Jackson and Whitley scoop overall SLA Information Book Award". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
23. Maximilíano Durón (28 March 2024), Ibrahim Mahama Wins Dia’s Inaugural Sam Gilliam Award ARTnews.