We are pleased to invite you the next curator talk of On Making, 2020 – a series that delves into the age-old query of “how do we make?” Tracing the different arcs of art and exhibition-making and how these might respond to the changing contours of tomorrow, we have with us this week a critic, curator and art historian – Murtaza Vali.

Based between Brooklyn and Sharjah, Murtaza Vali’s ongoing research interests include materialist art histories, ex-centric minimalisms, ghosts and other figures of liminal subjectivities and repressed histories, and the weight of colour. A recipient of a 2011 Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Writing, he contributes regularly to various art periodicals and publications for non-profit institutions and commercial galleries. Vali is an Adjunct Curator at the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, and is currently curating a series of exhibitions about “intimate infrastructures” in the Gulf at Warehouse421 in Abu Dhabi and is part of the Artistic Team for the 2nd FRONT Triennial in Cleveland in 2022. A Visiting Instructor at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, he is also a Lead Tutor of Campus Art Dubai and a Lead Mentor for the Hayy: Learning Curatorial Fellowship.

In his talk, Murtaza will take us through his widely acclaimed group exhibition Crude which inaugurated the Jameel Arts Centre, and explored the relationship between oil and modernity across West Asia. He is joined in conversation by Phalguni Guliani and Saloni Doshi.

About the Moderators:
Phalguni Guliani is the Space118 Contemporaries’ Art Writer in Residence.
Saloni Doshi is the Founder and Director of Space118 Studios.