Nadia Abdelkaui will join the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam as curator of modern art, starting 15 January 2024.She will be responsible for art until 1950 and, as well as looking after the collection, will contribute to research, publications, acquisitions, collection presentations, and exhibitions.

Nadia Abdelkaui (1992) studied Art History at the University of Amsterdam and served as curator of Art in Groningen from 1850 to the present at the Groninger Museum since 2021. There, she was in charge of much of the modern and contemporary art collection and curated exhibitions such as Alida Pott (2021), MEGALITH (2022), Kleur! (2022) and an international traveling exhibition about the Groningen artists’ association De Ploeg.

She previously held the role of curator at the Amsterdam School museum Het Schip (2018-2020), was assistant curator for contemporary art projects at Cityscapes Foundation in Amsterdam (2018), and worked at the Centraal Museum in Utrecht as assistant curator on the exhibition Rietveld’s Masterpiece: Long Live de Stijl (2017), as part of the collection management team and later as guest curator for the exhibition Collector’s Item (2020). Abdelkaui collaborated on several publications, including those on Bruno Taut (2020) and Gerrit Rietveld (2017). She is also an advisor at the Creative Industries Fund NL and a board member of the Van Eesteren Museum in Amsterdam.

Rein Wolfs, Director of the Stedelijk Museum: “The Stedelijk is delighted to welcome Nadia Abdelkaui as curator of modern art. The collection of art until 1950 is vitally important to the museum. Not only is the Malevich sub-collection a highlight, but the Stedelijk is the only museum in Amsterdam where the various facets of modernism’s evolution can be shown. The exhibition MODERN, which we presented earlier this year, demonstrated that new research in this field can also yield fresh, new outcomes in the museum. By drawing on her own perspective, Nadia Abdelkaui will also be able to drive and shape this new and different view in the future.”

Nadia Abdelkaui: “The Stedelijk Museum is an amazing museum with an incredible collection of modern art of international standing. As curator, I like to offer new perspectives and reflect on the canon. Through research and exhibitions, I want to tell the lesser-known stories, offer women artists a platform, and inspire my projects by seeking cross-cultural connections. This interdisciplinary approach fits the new direction of the Stedelijk and I look forward to being part of it.”

FOTOCULT Blog by Glaphyra Gusenbauer