Christine Tohmé has been named the curator of the 13th Sharjah Biennial, which is due to take place in 2017. Tohmé is the founding director of Ashkal Alwan, the non-profit Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, which was established in 1993.
In 2002, Tohmé launched Home Works, which is described by the organisers as a multidisciplinary platform that takes place in Beirut every two to three years (the event has become a de facto biennial for the Lebanese capital). The seventh edition of Home Works is scheduled to open on 12 November.
Omar Kholeif, a curator at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, calls the appointment "a triumph". He says: "Christine has long been a figure who has helped capture the spirit of the emerging, the silenced and the forgotten, bringing them into public view both in the Middle East and internationally."
Tohmé attended the American University in Beirut, and has a Master's degree in contemporary art theory from Goldsmiths College, University of London.
The president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi, said in a statement that Tohmé "has been a close colleague for many years, participating as a speaker in numerous Sharjah Art Foundation March Meetings and acting as jury member for the Sharjah Biennial Prize in 2011".
The biennial has, since its launch in 1993, provided a crucial platform for contemporary artists in the conservative enclaves of the Middle East. The emirate of Sharjah, just north of Dubai, is now considered a regional hub for contemporary art, more so than its oil-rich neighbour, Qatar, which, in recent years, has invested heavily in contemporary art exhibitions and acquisitions.
