The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has announced the appointment of Elvira Dyangani Ose as artistic director of the upcoming Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial, which is set to open in the autumn of this year and run until 2027.
Ose is the current director of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), with previous experience curating the the 8th Gothenburg Biennial for Contemporary Art (2015), and multiple exhibitions at the Fondazione Prada. She was previously the chief curator at The Showroom in London, senior curator at Creative Time, and curator of International Art at the Tate Modern.
Among her recent projects are Project a Black Planet – The Art and Culture of Panafrica (2024 – 2027) which Ose co-curated, Coco Fusco. I Learned to Swim On Dry Land (2025) and Goshka Macuga’s Miu Miu Tales and Tellers (2024 – 2025) for which Ose was a convenor. With a curatorial considerations focus on a critical approach to how history can be narrated as a participatory experience, alongside how collective representation can leave marks in public places as well as the retrieval of non-Western accounts and epistemologies.
Ose is currently a sitting member on the board of CIMAM – International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art and has also been on the Advisory Council of Tate Modern, as well as a member of the Thought Council of Fondazione Prada.
The inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial previously took place across Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, activating the surrounding areas with a number of site-specific installations by artists such as Kader Attia, Superflex, Nathan Coley, Wael Al Awar, Farah Al Qassimi and Shaikha Al Ketbi, whose works were subsequently acquired and now are exhibited as permanent pieces of public art.
