Grant Watson (PhD, completed 2016)

Grant Watson is Senior Curator and Research Associate at the Institute of International Visual Arts in London (Iniva). As curator at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen (MuHKA) 2006 – 2010 his projects included Santhal Family positions around an Indian sculpture, Cornelius Cardew, Search for the Spirit, Textiles Art and the Social Fabric and the Keywords lecture series. He was previously the Curator of Visual Arts at Project in Dublin between 2001 and 2006 where he focused on solo commissions from contemporary Irish and international artists as well as themed projects such as a series around communism that included an exhibition, book and radio programme. Watson has worked with modern and contemporary Indian art since 1999, researching this subject for Documenta 12, as well as co curating Reflections on Indian Modernism a series of exhibitions, talks and events at the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA). The touring exhibition Nasreen Mohamedi: Notes is the first instalment of this programme. He has published widely writing including with Phaidon, DuMont Publishers, De Appel/Open Editions, Afterall, Flash Art, Metropolis M, Jaherwal Nerhu University, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Showroom Gallery and Neue Review. Talks/panels including at Tate, Serpentine, Van Abbemuseum, Weils, Casco Projects, Canal/Peer Arts, ACAD conference (Baeza) Visva Barati University (W.Bengal), V&A, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Watson studied Curating and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College London where he is currently a PhD candidate.

Interests: A continued investigation into the communistic as it is materialised in contemporary and historical art practice as well as in lived experience. An analysis of the cartography of power as well as the micro political - of how individuals and groups position themselves in relation to the world as a key theme within the curatorial. Methodology: to make this analysis through semi fictional texts that perform the notion of a poetic community and resistance at the level of the micro political.