Leeza Ahmady is an independent art curator and educator based in New York. Born in Afghanistan, she spent her adolescence in the United States. Ahmady has traveled widely in Central Asia, presenting the largely unknown artists of the region in international art forums such as the Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennial, and Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong. She directs Asian Contemporary Art Week (ACAW), an annual event initiated by the Asia Society, New York, comprising a series of special exhibitions, lectures, and performances at leading city museums and galleries. Ahmady’s efforts in complicating categorical notions about Asia have resulted in an expanded list of participating artists, and a broad consortium of venues that support the initiative, such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.
Ahmady’s notable exhibitions include: “The Taste of Others,” apexart, New York (2005); “The Paradox of Polarity: Contemporary Art from Central Asia,” Bose Pacia, New York (2007); “Parable of the Garden: New Media Art from Iran and Central Asia,” College of New Jersey Art Gallery, Ewing (2008); “I Dream of the Stans,” Winkleman Gallery, New York and MARTE–Museo de Arte de El Salvador (2008); “Tarjama / Translation,” Queens Museum of Art, Flushing, N.Y. (2009) and Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (2010). She is a founding member of a number of nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Central Asia, such as Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA).
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