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) and Curator at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010-2022). 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 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
‘Rina Banerjee’s Shapeshifting Travellers’, Vadehra Gallery, Delhi, 2026
‘‘, Art Monthly, June 2026
‘Through Salt and Shadows’, , Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Venice, 2026
‘’, Visual Carlow, 2026
and , Griffin Art Projects, 2025
‘‘, Punctum. International Journal of Semiotics 10 (2), 2025
ԉ۪, Artforum, March 2025
ԉ۪, Artforum, February 2025
‘’, Frieze Week Magazine, October 2024
, Art Toronto Platform Talks, 2024
‘’, Artforum, June 2024
, Art Basel Conversations Miami Beach, 2023
, Art Basel Conversations, 2023
‘’, ‘HANNAH: Performance and Palindromes’, , Susch/Skira, 2022
, Whitechapel Gallery, 2022 (ed.)
Conversations with and at CHART Art Fair, Copenhagen, 2021
‘’, João Pimenta Gomes, MAAT, Lisbon, 2021
‘How Can We Listen Better?’, , Whitechapel Gallery, 2020 (ed.)
‘’, Programmed Melancholy, MAAT/Mousse, 2020
Interview, , Whitechapel Gallery, 2020 (ed.)
‘John Stezaker’, ‘Mike Nelson’ and ‘Kader Attia’ for , Aargauer Kunsthaus, 2019
‘One who listens, with a hundred ears’, Chapter Gallery, Cardiff, 2019
Emily Butler and Cameron Foote, ‘A Curator’s Tour’, Whitechapel Gallery (ed.)
‘We have to Create Ourselves as a Work of Art’, , Whitechapel Gallery, 2017 (ed.)
‘Châteaux de cartes (Houses of Cards)’, , Villa Arson, Nice, 2015
‘Kader Attia: The Infinite Library’, , Whitechapel Gallery, 2014 (ed.)
‘Hannah Höch’s Later Collages’, , Whitechapel Gallery/Prestel, 2014 (ed.)
Conferences
’, Art History Association annual conference, University of Cambridge, 2026
‘, Experiential Translation Online Seminar, King’s College, London, 2026