BIO /

​Asha Iman Veal's recent exhibitions Beautiful Diaspora / You Are Not the Lesser Part (2022) and LOVE: Still Not the Lesser (2023) inspired cross-diasporic conversations between global artists including Xyza Cruz Bacani, Widline Cadet, Sunil Gupta, Ngadi Smart; and celebrations of love and desire by Mous Lamrabat, Jorian Charlton, Jess T. Dugan, Mari Katayama, and more. Veal is Associate Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago. She has conceptualized and led exhibitions for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Hyde Park Art Center, and more.

Her RAISIN vol. 1 biennial exhibition, and public radio broadcast series, commissioned several new artworks and generated community among more than 30 global artists including Işıl Eğrikavuk, Amanda Williams, and Tintin Wulia; and produced a 10-episode public radio broadcast series including arts and culture leaders Tracie Hall, Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE, and Uriara Maciel. 

Veal's work has been featured by international cultural institutions such Pakhuis de Zwijger Amsterdam, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Chicago, and San Diego State University; as well as media outlets The New York Times, WBEZ NPR 91.5, NBC 5 Chicago, and CBS 2 Chicago.  She has been an invited jury reviewer and crit panelist for the East African Photo Awards, FORMAT Photo Festival UK, FotoFest Houston, Earth Photo, Terra Foundation Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, University of Chicago Arts + Public Life, University of Chicago DOVA, RISDI, and more.

In her additional appointment, Veal is Associate Professor Adj at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Department of Arts Administration & Policy, where she's expanded direct curricular links to global arts, culture, and multimedia discourses by inviting and hosting more than 100 virtual and in-person discussions, with guests including Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska, the late Bisi Silva, and ballet dancer/movement adviser for robot technology David Ennio Minor.

In other affiliations, Veal bridges interdisciplinary relationships between the arts, government, corporate, and nonprofit sectors through her role as a Senior Fellow of Humanity in Action (EU/UK/US), and as a longtime member of the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network (global table). She has previously been a board member of Experimental Sound Studio and Heaven Gallery (Chicago).

Asha Iman has worked on projects and/or arts research in Chicago, New York, Brazil, UK, Tokyo, Berlin, Edinburgh, Havana, Vietnam, Juárez MX, and more. She began her career as a core-team member of playwright Eve Ensler’s V-Day global movement to end violence against women and girls (New York). She earned her BA at New York University’s Gallatin School, an MFA in creative writing at The New School, and an MA in arts administration and policy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

photo by Benita Nnenna Nnachortam, 2022