Asha Iman Veal

Based in Paris, France/Chicago, US.
(she/her)

Curator for globally collaborative exhibitions of contemporary art, focused on conceptual photography and moving-image, cross diasporic themes, and intercultural dialogues through methodologies of art education.

Visiting Critic for National & Global Contemporary Art Platforms:

American Academy in Rome/Terra Foundation Affiliated Fellowship, Artadia Awards, Austin Texas Public Arts Jury, Belfast Photo Festival, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Denver Month of Photography, Earth Photo UK, East African Photo Awards, FILTER Photography Festival, FORMAT Photo Festival UK, FotoFest Houston, HARPO Foundation, Hyde Park Art Center, LensCulture Critics Choice Awards, Los Angeles Center of Photography, Ox-Bow Artist Residency, Photographic Resource Center, Rencontres d'Arles France, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Chicago Arts + Public Life, U of C Department of Visual Arts, Visual Studies Workshop NY, World Press Photo Netherlands.

Invited Talks & Papers Presented:

GRAIN Projects UK, Humanity In Action – Netherlands, Istituto Italiano Cultura Chicago, Malcolm X College Chicago, Midwest Art History Society Annual Conference, Oracle International Photo Curators Conference, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam Netherlands, San Diego State University, Stockholm University Department of Culture and Aesthetics MA International Curating course.

Essays & Printed Conversations:

Jess T. Dugan & Charlotte Cotton: Love Pictures (2026 Radius Books), Diasporas are the Landscape (2025 Visual Studies Workshop), Here, There: New Perspectives on the Collection (2025 Illinois State Museum), “LOVE: Still Not the Lesser” (2023 Museum of Contemporary Photography), “Beautiful Diaspora/You Are Not the Lesser Part” (2022 Museum of Contemporary Photography), “RAISIN vol.1” (2021 independent, managing-editor), Dark Matter catalogue and LP album (2019 Candor Arts: Chicago, co-editor), Ground Floor Biennial 2018 (2018 Hyde Park Art Center, co-editor), emerge: Journal of Arts Administration and Policy (2017 MAAAP School of the Art Institute of Chicago).

Bibliography, Interviews, & Media Notes:    

ABC7 TV Chicago, Bad at Sports podcast, Brooklyn Vegan, Chicago Tribune, Create! Magazine, Dazed Magazine, FOX32 TV Chicago, Hyperallergic, NBC 5 Chicago, NewCity Magazine, The New York Times, Vocalo Radio, Wallpaper, WBEZ Chicago Radio, Wall Street Journal.

Exhibitions & Curatorial Projects:

Full list and portfolio available at https://ashaimanveal.cargo.site

Since beginning as adjunct faculty in 2017 I’ve developed innovative curricula—expanding methods of art education on the SAIC campus, as well as through my external work in leading professional development workshops for cohorts of socially engaged artists. Consistently, I leverage my curatorial practice and network to expand direct curricular links to global arts, culture, and human rights discourses. In sources of scholarship and experience, I believe in wide diversity—and I am not hesitant to create the necessary sources if they don’t yet exist.

In spring 2024 at SAIC, I piloted a graduate-level curriculum that I simultaneously facilitated between in-person and virtual classrooms at SAIC Chicago and the community-based Imagens do Povo art school based in the Complexo da Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We conducted the full-semester course in spoken English and Portuguese closed-caption translations, with the invaluable assistance of additional real-time language translation by the Imagens do Povo program director.

In 2019 at SAIC, I proposed and developed the “Being a Woman of Color in the Arts” course for undergraduate students and successfully led six cohorts since the inaugural year.

Over the years, I’ve invited and hosted nearly 100 virtual and in-person classroom discussions with guests including: Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, 2015 International Venice Biennial – Pavilion of the Republic of Macedonia artists (Macedonia); Bisi Silva, CCA Lagos founder (Nigeria); David Ennio Minor, ballet dancer and movement adviser for robot technology (US/EU/China); Hashim Nasr, conceptual photographer displaced by the Sudan Civil War (Sudan/Egypt); Cognate Collective, installation artists (Mexico/US border); and many more.

In addition to my present home department of the Low-Res MFA program, I recently served as core faculty in the Department Arts Administration & Policy, and was affiliated faculty in Visual & Critical Studies, Professional Practices, and Art Therapy. In Fall 2020, three years after beginning as an adjunct at SAIC, my contributions to the school community were acknowledged by a Karen and Jim Frank Excellence in Teaching Award.

Over the years, I’ve participated on grad admissions panels for the Department of Arts Administration & Policy and the MFA Low-Res Program. In 2024 I participated on the SAIC President’s search advisory committee for the incoming VP of Advancement. Additionally, I am honored to have been recommended by SAIC to participate in the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design BIPOC Academic Leadership Institute (2023–2025).

Beyond the SAIC campus, I’ve represented our pedagogical perspective as an invited thesis panelist and critique guest for peer institutions including the University of Chicago Department of Visual Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, and more.

To maximize our SAIC students’ experience in all courses, I work to be flexible and creative in fostering high-engagement and inclusivity during class sessions. I activate the classroom as a laboratory and seminar of knowledge production. This includes the highest possible collective intelligence amongst a body of sources: readings, field trips, guest dialogues, peer review, and the students’ individual and collaborative projects.

My goal is for students to understand how the experience and skills of an arts education are strong as a leadership background within and beyond our field. Long after our time in the classroom together, I want students to be able to make opportunities for themselves at moments when the visible infrastructures of contemporary art are over-saturated or lacking.