Curator & Head of Curatorial Studies, Whitechapel Gallery
Nayia Yiakoumaki is a curator and academic researcher based in London. She holds a PhD in Curating from Goldsmiths College, London (2009) and has lectured extensively in higher education since 1991. She is Head of Curatorial Studies and Curator of the Archive Gallery at the Whitechapel Gallery. There, she has developed an innovative programme for curating archives, and is leading on the MA Curating Art and Public Programmes which is delivered together with LSBU and Geoff Cox.
Nayia is also directing NEON Curatorial Exchange & Award, an initiative that fosters professional relations between emerging British and Greek curators. From 2016-2017 she was Co-Director of the Athens Biennale organisation and Director of Research and International Networks. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Guerrilla Girls: Is it even worse in Europe? (2016), Killed Negatives: Images of 1930s America (2018), Staging Jackson Pollock (2018), Queer Spaces: London, 1980s – Today (2019) and The Return of the Spirit in Painting (2020).