Zoe Whitley

Dr Zoé Whitley is an award-winning art historian and curator. She is the former Director of Chisenhale Gallery in London and has held influential curatorial positions at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Hayward Gallery, and the V&A. Whitley co-curated the landmark exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and its international tour (2017–20), ranked by ARTnews as one of the most important exhibitions of the 2010s and thereafter was named among among Apollo magazine’s 2018 “40 Under 40 Thinkers in Europe.” In 2019, Zoé curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

She has served on international arts juries including the Turner Prize, Preis der Nationalgalerie Berlin, and the Future Generation Art Prize selection committee. Whitley is a Trustee of the Teiger Foundation, Gasworks and Sir John Soane’s Museum. She was a member of the London Mayor’s Commission on Diversity in the Public Realm. She is currently the authorised biographer of Betye Saar, the American artist celebrated for her pioneering work in assemblage art and is working on a monograph with Barbara Kruger for Thames and Hudson. In a curatorial capacity, she is an international advisor and part of the Palais de Tokyo team for Paris’ citywide cultural initiative La Quinquennale (2027).