LONDON.- Zoé Whitley has been appointed Director of Chisenhale Gallery. Taking up the post in late March 2020, she will succeed Polly Staple in leading Chisenhale’s acclaimed exhibition and engagement programme and in building on its reputation as one of London’s most innovative forums for contemporary art.

Whitley is currently Senior Curator at the Hayward Gallery in London and has sixteen years’ experience of creating and delivering innovative and inclusive exhibition programming in some of the UK’s leading national museums and galleries.

From 2013 to 2019, Whitley held senior curatorial roles at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, where she co-authored Tate’s Africa Acquisitions strategy and co-curated the landmark, critically acclaimed exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. Whitley was selected by the British Council to curate the British Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, presenting a new body of work by artist Cathy Wilkes. In 2013, she co-curated The Shadows Took Shape at Studio Museum Harlem, an interdisciplinary exhibition exploring contemporary art through the lens of Afrofuturist aesthetics.

Before joining Tate, Whitley spent ten years in curatorial roles at the Victoria & Albert Museum, delivering exhibitions and site-specific commissions. She holds a PhD from The Centre for Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. Whitley has served on the Artistic Director’s Advisory Council for Prospect 4, the US’s largest triennial, and on juries for the artist awards run by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, Crafts Council, and the Arts Foundation, among others. She has also worked as a course facilitator on the pan-African ASIKÓ Art School.

Alice Rawsthorn, Chair of Chisenhale Gallery’s Board of Trustees, said: “We are thrilled that Zoé is to be the next director of Chisenhale Gallery. Her exceptional record as a curator and as a champion of cultural diversity and inclusivity equip her brilliantly for the role. We look forward to working with Zoé as she sustains Chisenhale’s rich history of experimentation by delivering a dynamic new vision for the gallery.”

Zoé Whitley said: “I’ve been inspired by Chisenhale Gallery’s programme since I first became a curator. I’m honoured to have been selected to lead its next chapter as Director and excited by the challenges and possibilities for artistic collaborations to come. I plan to build upon Chisenhale’s reputation for risk-taking and timeliness, which was synonymous with Polly’s leadership. I am dedicated to working with artists at pivotal stages in their careers; and to ensuring Chisenhale’s future programme breaks new ground creatively and resonates publicly.”

Ralph Rugoff, Director of Hayward Gallery, said: “I am very pleased for Zoé, who I’m sure will do a wonderful job leading Chisenhale Gallery into the future. I am also very much looking forward to seeing the fruits of Zoé’s work at the Hayward Gallery later this year. Her immersive exhibition Reverb: Sound into Art opens in June, bringing together an inspiring group of international artists who explore our relationships with sounds; which follows her HENI Project Space exhibition in May, featuring the work of increasingly influential American artist Cauleen Smith.”