Maayan Sheleff

Maayan Sheleff is an independent art curator and researcher based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Her projects explore social and political issues through participatory practices, at the intersection of art and technology. Sheleff holds a Ph.D. in Practice in Curating in a joint program of the Department of Art at the University of Reading and the postgraduate program in Curating at the Zurich University of the Arts.

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Biography

Sheleff was raised in Kiryat Ono, Israel. She studied plastic arts at the Thelma Yellin High School of Arts, Givatayim. Sheleff graduated Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a B.Des in industrial design, also studying at the Rhode Island School of Design and Politecnico di Milano. She later pursued postgraduate studies at the Interdisciplinary Arts Program, Tel Aviv University. She received her PhD from the Curatorial Platform in Zurich University of the Arts and Reading University, UK.
Sheleff has been regularly teaching at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, department of photography, the International Curatorial Studies Program of the Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv, at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, Jerusalem and at Sapir Academic College, Sderot. She has been a guest lecturer in many institutions such as HaMidrasha – Faculty of the Arts, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology's Division of Continuing Education and External Studies curating program.

Curatorial positions

2014– Artistic Advisor and chair of artistic committee at the Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem and curator of its international residency program, LowRes Jerusalem
2009–2012 – Curator at the Center for Contemporary Art (CCA), Tel Aviv
2009–2012 – Assistant Director at the International Curatorial Studies Program of the Kibbutzim College and the CCA Tel Aviv
2006–2009 – Director and chief curator of Line 16, a public gallery for contemporary art

Awards, grants and residencies

2015 – International Curatorial Retreat, organized by Vessel/Mada, Bari, Italy
2014 – Residency Unlimited, NYC
2014 – Quartier 21, Vienna, invited by Paraflows Festival for Digital Art
2012 – Truth is Concrete, Steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz, Austria
2012–2013 – Artport residency, Tel Aviv
2012 – Artis grant recipient
2012 – International Studio & Curatorial Program Curator Award
2010 – Independent Curators International Curatorial Intensive, New York City
2010 – Artis grant recipient

Selected exhibitions

2017 – Poland ↔ Israel, Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków
2015 – Preaching to the Choir, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art
2014 – The Infiltrators, Artport Tel Aviv
2013 – The Promised Land, The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
2012 – Other Lives, Bloomfield Science Museum, Jerusalem, a new-media exhibition inspired by scientist Allan Turing
2012 – Secondary Witness, International Studio & Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, New York City
2012 – Connected, An Exhibition About Girls and the Internet, Bat Yam Promenade
2012 – Prolonged Exposure, The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2009–2010 – Co-curator, Transit project, cooperation between The Center for Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv and MADRE, Naples, Italy
2009 – Co-curator, ARTLV – the 1st Tel Aviv-Yafo Biennial

Selected publications

2022 – InConcrete Stones, participating artists: Hannan Abu-Hussein, Nikolaus Eckhard, Avner Pinchover, Christoph Weber, Arkadi Zaides, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem
2021 –, Ruth Patir & Maayan Sheleff, OnCurating, Zurich.
2019 –, Maayan Sheleff & Sarah Spies, OnCurating, Zurich.
2019 –, participating artists:, Guy Konigstein, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem.
2018 –, participating artists: Morehshin Allahyari, Lior Zalmanson, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem.
2017 – Fear and Love in Graz: Steirischer Herbst’s Truth Is Concrete, in Empty Stages, Crowded Flats – Performativity as Curatorial Strategy – Performing Urgency #4, and Janna Warsza,
2017 –, Art Cube Artists' Studios, Jerusalem.
2017 – 50 Years, B'Tselem
2016 –, in Geflüchtete und Kulturelle Bildung Formate und Konzepte für ein neues Praxisfeld, Maren Ziese & Caroline Gritschke,, Bielefeld.
2016 –, a conversation with Andy Bichlbaum from The Yes Men, Tohu online magazine
2014 –,
2012 –, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP).
2012 – World Order, Dana Levy, Braverman Gallery and CCA Tel Aviv.