Dr. Zoé Whitley

Dr. Zoé Whitley is the incoming director of Chisenhale Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in London. Previously, she was senior curator at London’s Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre. In 2019, she curated Cathy Wilkes’ British Council commission in the British Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Prior to this, she was curator of international art at Tate Modern from 2014 to 2019 and jointly held a brief tenure as curator of contemporary British art at Tate Britain. She also spent 2003 to 2013 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, first as assistant curator of prints and drawings, then as a curator of contemporary programs, specializing in site-specific artist commissions and temporary exhibitions. Named to Apollo Magazine's “40 Under 40” in 2018, Whitley serves on the boards of Gasworks, a non-profit visual art organization and artist studio provider in London; Guest Artists Space Foundation, an artist residency and international collaboration non-profit in Nigeria; and the Decolonising Arts Institute at the University of the Arts London. Originally from the United States, Whitley earned a BA at Swarthmore College, an MA in the history of design at the Royal College of Art, and a PhD at the University of Central Lancashire. She served as a Center panelist in Performance in 2019 and 2018.