Neville Wakefield

Neville Wakefield is a modern curator interested in exploring the ways in which art behaves outside of institutional contexts. This interest led him to co-found Elevation1049, a site-specific biennial in Gstaad, Switzerland, while shaping the recurring Desert X exhibitions in the Coachella Valley region of Southern California. He is also co-artistic director, with Raneem Farsi of Desert X AlUla, a site-specific exhibition of international artists, taking place in AlUla, northwest Saudi Arabia, home to the country’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hegra. As senior curatorial advisor for PS1 MoMA and curator of Frieze Projects, he gained a reputation for challenging the conditions that shape art in both commercial and noncommercial contexts. He has worked extensively with international institutions, including the Schaulager in Switzerland, where he curated the Matthew Barney retrospective Prayer Sheet with the Wound and the Nail.