Asha Iman Veal

Asha Iman Veal is a curator of interdisciplinary contemporary art (the Museum of Contemporary Photography) and an art school professor (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)​. Her recent large-scale exhibitions Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part (MoCP 2022) and LOVE: Still Not the Lesser (MoCP 2023) brought together cross-diasporic conversations between global artists Xyza Cruz Bacani, Widline Cadet, Cog•nate Collective, Sunil Gupta, Kelvin Haizel, Ngadi Smart, and more; and celebrations of love and desire by Jorian Charlton, Jess T. Dugan, and Mous Lamrabat, among others. Her Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021 partner program and exhibition, RAISIN (vol. 1), commissioned new artworks and generated community among more than 35 global artists including Işıl Eğrikavuk, Amanda Williams, and Tintin Wulia. Throughout her tenure at MoCP, Asha Iman has introduced an array of new acquisitions into the museum’s permanent collection. She has separately organized and worked on a number of projects and/or arts research since 2004, in Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Havana, Vietnam, Edinburgh, Darby/London, Berlin, Juárez, Brazil, Canada, and more; and held staff roles in New York and Chicago. 

Veal frequently serves as a jury panelist and reviewer for cultural programs in the US and abroad, such as the East African Photography Awards, Earth Photo Award by Forestry England and the Royal Geographical Society, American Academy in Rome / Terra Foundation Affiliated Fellowship, Visual Studies Workshop NY, University of Chicago Arts + Public Life, and more; and the FORMAT International Photography Festival UK, Rencontres d’Arles France, FotoFest Houston, Belfast Photo Festival, and others. She has been a guest lecturer for international cultural institutions such as GRAIN Projects UK, Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago, Humanity In Action – Netherlands, Stockholm University Department of Culture & Aesthetics, San Diego State University, and more. Asha Iman is active in the ORACLE Conference of International Photography Curators, Independent Curators International – Curatorial Forum and Chicago Assembly (2023 cohorts), and is a board member of Filter Photo (Chicago). Veal represents the arts and culture sector as a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action (EU/UK/US), and member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network (US and Germany Transatlantic Core Group, US and Canada North America Regional Network, and Global Table).

Photo Credit: Benita Nnachortam Nnenna, 2022

Updated February 2025