Curator

X Zhu-Nowell

Above: X Zhu-Nowell. Photo: Farah Al Qasimi

X Zhu-Nowell is a curator, writer, and institutional leader with a dynamic presence in both Shanghai and New York, currently the Artistic Director at the Rockbund Art Museum (RAM) in Shanghai. Zhu-Nowell is renowned for an innovative curatorial approach emphasizing deep, collaborative engagements with contemporary artists. This is exemplified in the RAM’s 2023 program, which centers around solo exhibitions and new commissions from six artists from Asia and its diaspora, including WangShui, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Tosh Basco, Diane Severin Nguyen, Shubigi Rao, and Tan Jing. 

From 2014 to 2022, Zhu-Nowell was a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where they earned critical acclaim for the exhibition Wu Tsang: Anthem, celebrated as the best exhibition of 2021 by The New York Times. In 2022, Zhu-Nowell co-organized the 6th Asian Art Council meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, for the Guggenheim, collaborating with artist Kandis Williams to explore themes of Afro-Asian diasporic connections, dispossession, and hybridity within curatorial practices.

The Artspace and The Keir Foundation International Curators Program is developed and presented by Artspace with support from The Keir Foundation.