Zoé Whitley

Zoé Whitley (born 30 December 1979) is an American art historian and curator. Between 2020 and March 2025, Whitley directed Chisenhale Gallery. Based in London, she has held curatorial positions at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate galleries, and the Hayward Gallery. At the Tate galleries, Whitley co-curated the 2017 exhibition Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, which ARTnews called one of the most important art exhibitions of the 2010s. Soon after she was chosen to organise the British pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

Whitley's research interests include contemporary artists and art practices from Africa and the African diaspora.

Early life and education Zoé Whitley was born in Washington, D.C., on 30 December 1979. Her family moved to Los Angeles, California, when she was a teenager. In high school, she took classes on art history and studio art. She has recalled taking a trip to the Getty Villa around the time because her parents could not afford to send her on a school trip to Europe.

Whitley attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, where she studied art history and French. Her master's thesis examined Black representation in Vogue magazine. She earned a PhD from the University of Central Lancashire with British artist and curator Lubaina Himid. In 2007, she organised Uncomfortable Truths, an exhibition that commemorated the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade. The exhibition examined traces of the slave trade in contemporary art and design. The exhibition, according to Whitley, emphasised "art and artists, rather than a social history of art and ephemera," and includes works by Frank Bowling, Betye Saar, and Barkley L. Hendricks. The Association of Art Museum Curators awarded Whitley one of its 2020 Curatorial Awards for Excellence for the exhibition.

Hayward Gallery, 2019–2020 In 2019, Whitley became senior curator of the Hayward Gallery. Her first and last exhibition at the Hayward was Reverb: Sound into Art, an exhibition that featured sound art by Christine Sun Kim, Kahlil Joseph, and Oliver Beer.

Chisenhale Gallery, 2020–2025 In 2020, Whitley was appointed director of Chisenhale Gallery. During her time at the space, she organized exhibitions of work by Lotus L. Kang, Nikita Gale, Rindon Johnson, Alia Farid, Benoît Pieron, and Rachel Jones, among others.

With Nancy Ireson, Whitley co-curated Elijah Pierces America, a retrospective of the works of American woodcarver Elijah Pierce exhibited at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Later that year, she oversaw Possessions, a section of the virtual "Frieze Viewing Room" that focuses on spirituality in contemporary art. In 2021, she was appointed to the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm, a committee overseeing diversity in London's public monuments and its street and building names.

Whitley worked on a children's book written by Sharna Jackson, Black Artists Shaping the World, which serves as an introduction to Black artists for young audiences. The book won the 2022 Information Book Award from the School Library Association.

Whitley was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2025 Special Honours for services to Art.