Anna Seaman
Through a piece of visual art you can learn about history, politics, religion, love, science, music and a whole host of other subjects including personal stories. For Anna Seaman, as a writer, it is a joy and a passion to set herself the challenge of writing about visual art and the messages that artists wish to convey through their work. Currently, Anna runs her own online portal featuring art-related news, reviews and features (annaseaman.com) and prior to that she was the visual arts writer at The National newspaper, whose headquarters are in Abu Dhabi. Anna is from the UK and has been living in the Middle East for 10 years.
Dorian Batycka
Dorian Batycka is a Canadian curator, art critic and DJ based in Muscat, Oman. He is currently curator at Bait Muzna for Art Film. Previously, he was assistant curator for the first ever Maldives National Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale and has contributed to numerous publications, including Art and Education, Frieze Blog, and Nero. He can be found on Twitter.
Jareh Das
Jareh Das, PhD, is a researcher, writer and curator who works on diverse visual arts projects independently, with arts institutions and non-profit organisations centred on ‘the contemporary.' Das was awarded her doctorate in July 2018 in Curating Art and Science: New Methods and Sites of Production and Display offered in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London and Arts Catalyst. Her future research will look at Contemporary West African Performance Art.
Marie Tomb
Marie Tomb is a Beirut-based art historian, writer, and researcher, with a particular affinity for the Lebanese and Middle Eastern art worlds, a field she has been immersed in for more than a decade. She was trained at Yale University, London’s Courtauld Institute of Art and the School of Oriental and African Studies, where her PhD dissertation focused on Modern Lebanese art. Passionate about disseminating her knowledge of fields and subjects she’s curious about, she is the author of two books on Lebanese Modern and Contemporary art, and of a prolific body of art writings. In parallel, she teaches at university and curates exhibitions. In 2018, she founded online art criticism platform Le Waw. This year, she is the editorial director of Beirut Art Fair.
Marwan Naaman
Over the course of a 20-year career, Marwan Naaman has written for the likes of Fodor’s, Modern Magazine, Monocle, Harvey Nichols and eHealth Insurance, in a variety of fields that range from travel, design and art to finance and medicine. He was editor-in-chief of A Magazine (formerly Aïshti Magazine) from 2002 until its closing in 2019. He’s currently editor of Cedar Wings, MEA’s in-flight publication.
Tim Cornwell
Tim Cornwell is a freelance art journalist who has covered artists and art festivals from London to Delhi, with a particular interest in the modern and contemporary visual art of the Middle East. He writes regularly for the Art Newspaper, The Scotsman and the Sunday Times in the UK and magazines including Harper’s Bazaar Arabia and Canvas.
Yasmina Nysten
Yasmina Nysten is a painter, writer and photographer. She has shown her photography, illustration and painting from New York to Qatar. Born and raised in Helsinki, she has lived in Cannes, Beirut and Brooklyn. After a BA from ALBA University, Beirut, she is currently earning her MA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In her spare time, she has been known to trip the lights fantastic and ride her hot pink motorcycle around the hood.