Lydia Yee

Independent curator, London

Lydia Yee is the former chief curator at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. In her role as chief curator, she oversaw a broad programme of modern and contemporary art exhibitions, new artist commissions, presentations of rarely seen collections from around the world, focused displays from the Whitechapel Gallery’s historic archive, and an extensive programme of publications. Prior to this, she worked as a curator at the Barbican Centre from 2007 to 2015. During her time at the Barbican, exhibitions she curated include Bauhaus: Art as Life, Ron Arad: Restless, and Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Gordon Matta-Clark: Pioneers of the Downtown Scene. Prior to joining the Barbican, Lydia was senior curator at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, where she was responsible for the exhibition programme and collection. She was the recipient of the Emily Hall Tremaine Exhibition Award in 2006 for Street Art, Street Life. In 2003, she was the Cassullo Fellow on the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Programme.

Lydia Yee was invited for a curatorial research trip in 2015.

 Lydia Yee, 2019. Photo: Christa Holka.