( 1 ) The Giardini della Biennale in Venice houses 30 permanent national pavilions. The pavilions are the property of the individual countries and are managed by their ministries of culture to showcase their country's artists during the prestigious arts festival, which is held every two years.
Behind the ScenesTarini Malik, curator.
Behind the ScenesTarini Malik, curator.
In addition to organizing the practical and logistical aspects of an art exhibition, Tarini Malik’s work as a curator involves confronting such topical issues as representation in art and postcolonialism. For this, she credits pioneering curators including Gaëtane Verna, the executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, and the artist John Akomfrah for paving the way, establishing a cultural landscape that’s open to women and people of color like her. Their work (and hers) has paid off. After several top gigs in London—as a curator at the Whitechapel and Hayward Galleries, and the head of exhibitions for artist Isaac Julien—Malik was chosen to oversee Akomfrah’s exhibition for the British pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.1 Verna, her mentor, happened to be curating the Canadian pavilion next door—a full circle moment that Malik says nearly brought her to tears of gratitude.
Sala Elise Patterson: How did you come to be a curator?
Tarini Malik: I was lucky to go to a school that offered art history as a subject, and that education drew me to galleries and museums as a young person. I began to see that there were stories being told that didn’t necessarily reflect my own experiences as someone diasporic. The desire to see these institutions reflect the complexity of the life and identity I embody led me to curating.
SEP: What’s the role of a curator?
