English:Niels Van Tomme (Q149628)

Niels Van Tomme (he/him) is a curator and lecturer who works internationally at the intersection of contemporary culture and critical social awareness.

He was director and chief curator at Argos Centre for Audiovisual Arts in Brussels (2018-24) and De Appel in Amsterdam (2016-18), curator at the Bucharest Biennale 7 (2014-16), visiting curator at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Baltimore (2011-16), and director of arts and media at Provisions Learning Project in Washington, DC (2008-11).

In his projects, Van Tomme collaborates with a wide range of artists, collectives, writers, musicians, and curators. Through these collaborations, he explores interdisciplinary approaches to curating and hybrid, process-based exhibition formats. He believes art can be a means to undo, or question commonly accepted knowledge, both in artistic and broader societal contexts.

His exhibitions and programmes have been shown internationally, including at the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), The Kitchen (New York), Contemporary Arts Center (New Orleans), Tallinn Art Hall (Tallinn), Gallery 400 (Chicago), Värmlands Museum (Karlstad), National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), and P! (New York).

Van Tomme’s writings have appeared in The Wire, Art in America, Camera Austria, Metropolis M, Afterimage, and Art Papers. His edited volumes include Muntadas: About Academia: Activating Artefacts (2017), Aesthetic Justice: Intersecting Artistic and Moral Perspectives (2015) with Pascal Gielen, Visibility Machines: Harun Farocki and Trevor Paglen (2014), and Where Do We Migrate To? (2011). He has additionally contributed to numerous books and exhibition catalogues, such as Christine Sun Kim: Oh Me Oh My (2024) and Tony Cokes: If UR Reading This It’s 2 Late, Vol. 1-3 (2019). Van Tomme regularly writes about music and occasionally provides liner notes for vinyl records by artists such as Hieroglyphic Being and Aki Onda.

He has held teaching positions at Parsons School of Design at The New School (New York) and University of Maryland Baltimore County, and has lectured at institutions such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Queen Mary University of London, Vassar College, University at Buffalo, School of Visual Arts New York, Valand Academy of Art and Design at University of Gothenburg, and Jan Van Eyck Academy.

In 2014 Van Tomme received the Vilcek Curatorial Fellowship by the Foundation for a Civil Society for his demonstrated experience and excellence in engaging with international contemporary art.

Together with film scholar and teacher Sonja Simonyi, he is the parent of two children.