Emily Butler is a curator, writer and editor. She teaches on the MA Curating programme at the Courtauld Institute of Art and is a PhD researcher in Curating at the University of Reading. Her doctoral research examines artists and curators as (mis)translators between languages, sign systems, cultures and worldviews.
She is Adjunct Curator at Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver. Previous roles include: Head of Programmes at the Contemporary Art Society Vancouver, Platform Talks Curator at Art Toronto (2024), and Conversations Curator at Art Basel (2021–2023). From 2010 to 2022, she was a curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London. She also held positions with the British Council’s Visual Arts team, Antony Gormley Studio, and the Centre Pompidou. She contributes to international publications, including Artforum, Frieze and Art Monthly. She has also been a visiting lecturer at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the Royal College of Art, OnCurating Academy, the University of Reading, and London Metropolitan University.
Projects at Whitechapel Gallery included leading the Artists’ Film International consortium; solo shows by Kai Althoff, Hannah Höch, John Stezaker, Wilhelm Sasnal; group shows including The London Open 2022 & 2018, Electronic Superhighway; displays from the ISelf Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington; commissions by Nalini Malani, Carlos Bunga, Katja Novitskova, Benedict Drew, Kader Attia, Rachel Whiteread; and festivals including Nocturnal Creatures 2021 & 2018, Art Night 2019 & 2017. She has collaborated with speakers including Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Guadalupe Maravilla, Chance the Rapper, Lauren Haynes, Tania Candiani, Juana Valdes, Es Devlin, Klaus Biesenbach, Jacques Herzog, Camille Henrot, Basim Magdy, Andrea Büttner, Carrie Mae Weems, Nona Hendryx, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Manthia Diawara, Ellen Gallagher, Zineb Sedira, Latifa Echachkch, Jeffrey Gibson, Manuel Matthieu and more.
Teaching at the Courtauld
- MA Curating, core module, ‘The Practice of Curating’
- MA Curating, elective module, ‘Working with Artists’
- MA Curating, core module, ‘Group Exhibition Project 1 and 2’
Research Interests
- Translation and (mis)translation in contemporary art
- Transnational approaches
- Transmediality and intermediality
- Artistic and curatorial movements between languages, sign systems, cultures and worldviews
- Decolonisation and re-appropriation of art world discourse
- Exhibition histories and collecting practices across private and public institutions
- Feminist and moving image practices
Selected Texts, Reviews, Edited Publications and Conversations
‘Paul Eastwood: Unreadings Mostyn‘, Art Monthly, June 2026
‘Through Salt and Shadows’, Nalini Malani: Of Women Born, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Venice, 2026
‘Anne Hardy: Omens from the Past and Talismans for the Future’, Visual Carlow, 2026
Conversations on Collecting International: Candice Hopkins and Maria Sukkar, Griffin Art Projects, 2025
‘Towards a Curatorial Translation Zone‘, Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics 10 (2), 2025
‘Joyce J. Scott: Seattle Art Museum’, Artforum, March 2025
‘Firelei Báez: Vancouver Art Gallery’, Artforum, February 2025
‘Maria Sukkar: from Lebanon to London’, Frieze Week Magazine, October 2024
How can the Art World be more Caring?, Art Toronto Platform Talks, 2024
‘Sky Hopinka: Frye Art Museum’, Artforum, June 2024
Found in Translation: The New Languages of Art, Art Basel Conversations Miami Beach, 2023
Shifting Mindsets: Welcoming Parenthood in the Art World, Art Basel Conversations, 2023
‘Hannah Villiger symposium’, ‘HANNAH: Performance and Palindromes’, Hannah Villiger, Susch/Skira, 2022
The London Open 2022, Whitechapel Gallery, 2022 (ed.)
Conversations with Bella Rune and Janaina Tschape at CHART Art Fair, Copenhagen, 2021
‘Cloud Variations’, João Pimenta Gomes, MAAT, Lisbon, 2021
‘How Can We Listen Better?’, Nalini Malani: Can You Hear Me? , Whitechapel Gallery, 2020 (ed.)
‘Gabriel Abrantes: The Present Unbounded’, Programmed Melancholy, MAAT/Mousse, 2020
Interview, Carlos Bunga: Something Necessary and Useful, Whitechapel Gallery, 2020 (ed.)
‘John Stezaker’, ‘Mike Nelson’ and ‘Kader Attia’ for Masks, Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2019
‘One who listens, with a hundred ears’, Paul Eastwood, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, 2019
Emily Butler and Cameron Foote, ‘A Curator’s Tour’, The London Open 2018, Whitechapel Gallery (ed.)
‘We have to Create Ourselves as a Work of Art’, Creating Ourselves, Whitechapel Gallery, 2017 (ed.)
‘Châteaux de cartes (Houses of Cards)’, Ibai Hernandorena, Villa Arson, Nice, 2015
‘Kader Attia: The Infinite Library’, The Light of Jacob’s Ladder, Whitechapel Gallery, 2014 (ed.)
‘Hannah Höch’s Later Collages’, Hannah Höch, Whitechapel Gallery/Prestel, 2014 (ed.)