ABOUT

HANNAH DOWLING (b. 2000) is a curator and creative based in London and Malta, with a background in Art History, theatre, and classical ballet. These practices have honed her desire to explore such art forms through a curatorial lens. She is interested in the expanded field of curation, and particularly the performative role of the curator. Her curatorial practice treads the line between curator, creative director and artist, by way of exploring the affective power of transformation within the curatorial.

Curation is her artistic medium which encapsulates intangible concepts through tangible forms. At the core of her practice, her curatorial approach aims to foster connections between artworks, artists, people and creatives. She is dedicated to experimental and boundary-pushing methods of curation and seeks to create an experience for viewers and collaborators whereby they can feel a project and potentially ‘find themselves’ in it. Through this, the viewer may be affected in some way or another. Her premise is that affect has the power to transform, though this cannot be guaranteed. It cannot be imposed upon the audience, but the curator can create a space which allows for this to happen. By adopting this approach, she strives to create her own curatorial narrative and reach a diverse audience, whilst retaining artistic integrity and the unique affective power to transform.

Hannah graduated from the University of Malta with a B.A. (Hons.) in History of Art in 2021 and received the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence that same year. She has been working in the Arts and Cultural sector since 2018 and began her venture in curation with Unearthing Metal: A Distance in Time (Mdina Biennale, Malta, 2020). Her curatorial interests have been inspired by her work experience as a curatorial assistant for Diplomazija astuta (Malta Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2022) and has influenced her recent curatorial projects, including Simple Expressions of Complex Thoughts (Malta Biennale, Malta, 2024) and The Enigma of Arrival (RCA, London, 2024).