April 14
Happy birthday, Hiuwai
Wishing you the most wonderful year ahead. Full of new conversations, new territories to explore, and people worth getting lost with.
MACBA · Sharjah Art Foundation · Dia Art Foundation · MUAC · Kiasma · Nottingham Contemporary · Kunstinstituut Melly · Galeria Municipal do Porto · Samdani Art Foundation · K21 · MMCA Seoul · Brown Arts Institute · Cordova · Aperture · Hangar · LOOP · ICI
Now on view
Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom
MACBA, Feb 14 – Sep 28, 2026
Co-produced with Nottingham Contemporary, Brown Arts Institute, Kunstinstituut Melly
"There is something valuable in getting lost in this kind of process. Getting lost in order to then emerge with something."
Contemporanea, 2025
2023–2024
MACBA, with Guim Camps
108 invited participants. Inhabiting, gathering, sharing, being permeable.
2023–2024
2023
MACBA, with Elvira Dyangani Ose. Co-produced with Sharjah Art Foundation
2019–2020
MACBA, with Dia Art Foundation (Jessica Morgan, Alexis Lowry)
2017
MACBA, with Bartomeu Marí. Traveled to K21, MMCA Seoul, Sharjah Art Foundation
2025
Panorama da Arte Contemporânea Portuguesa
Galeria Municipal do Porto, with Raphael Fonseca
20 artists, different generations. Sculpture, painting, photography, moving image, text.
2026
Samdani Art Foundation / Dhaka Art Summit
Guest curator. Ten Bangladeshi artists, score-based commissions across international institutions.
"You start from listening, from observing what is happening in the territory, and from there the exhibition takes shape."
Contemporanea, 2025
Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Prisoners of Love · MACBA, 2026
The Third Twist · MACBA, 2026
108 Days · MACBA, 2023
A Leaf Shapes the Eye · MACBA, 2023
Between Circles and Constellations · MACBA, 2023
Work in Progress · MACBA, 2019
Against Photography · MACBA, 2017
L'1%, c'est moi · MACBA & MUAC, 2016
As assistant curator · MACBA, 2007–2016
John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner, Rita McBride, The Otolith Group, Raqs Media Collective
Undefined Territories · MACBA, 2019
Kapwani Kiwanga, Naeem Mohaiemen, Superflex, Lothar Baumgarten, Maria Thereza Alves, Black Audio Film Collective, Alán Carrasco, Mariana Castillo Deball, Sandra Gamarra, Jeffrey Gibson, Maryam Jafri, The Otolith Group, Daniela Ortiz, Pala Pothupitiye, Munem Wasif, Dana Whabira
Panorama 21: Notes for an Eye Fire · MACBA, 2021
El Palomar, Laia Estruch, Arash Fayez, Antoni Hervàs, Rasmus Nilausen, nyamnyam, Claudia Pagès, Aleix Plademunt, Stella Rahola Matutes, Eulàlia Rovira, Adrian Schindler, Rosa Tharrats, Gabriel Ventura, Marc Vives
Lúcido Devaneio · Galeria Municipal do Porto, 2025
Ana Vidigal, Andreia Santana, Belén Uriel, Dayana Lucas, Francisco Trêpa, Gonçalo Sena, Ilídio Candja, Joana Escoval, João Gabriel, João Pedro Vale + Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Mané Pacheco, Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, Sara Bichão, Sara Chang Yan, Silvestre Pestana, Sofia Borges, Teresa Murta, Tiago Madaleno, Tiago Mestre
TONDRA · Dhaka Art Summit, 2026
Ashfika Rahman, Joydeb Roaja, Kamruzzaman Shadhin, Laisul Haque, Munem Wasif, Promiti Hossain, Reetu Sattar, Samsul Alam Helal, Sumi Anjuman, Yasmin Jahan Nupur
How the colonial paradigm has shaped contemporary society. From the 1955 Bandung Conference to present-day politics of memory.
Conditions of representation. Belonging, anti-colonial struggles, strategies for resistance.
Dissolving distinctions between humans and environment. Collective strategies in the face of climate crisis.
Construction from the bottom up. Starting from listening and observing what is happening in the territory.
K. Verlag / L'Internationale, 2022. Co-editor with Meagan Down, Nkule Mabaso, Pablo Martínez, Corina Oprea
More than 25 voices. A response to climate change and the toxic politics of today.
Editorial Board, 2021–2023
Curatorial Forum: Mending Wall
ICI / EXPO CHICAGO, invited curator
Learning from Others: Towards a Visitor-Centered Museum
CIMAM Rapid Response Webinar, panelist
Buenos Aires, travel grantee
International jury member, multiple editions
In conversation with Akram Zaatari
MACBA, public programme
Hiuwai Chu is Head of Exhibitions and Curator at MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, where she has worked since 2007. She studied anthropology at Barnard College, Columbia University, and previously worked as associate editor at Aperture Foundation in New York.
Her areas of research are in relation to the conditions of representation, with special emphasis on diasporic communities, and how the colonial paradigm has shaped current societal and environmental conditions.
As an assistant curator at MACBA (2007–2016), she worked on exhibitions with John Baldessari, Rita McBride, Lawrence Weiner, The Otolith Group and Raqs Media Collective.
She is on the board of Cordova, an independent curatorial project in Barcelona. External tutor at Metafora Studio Arts. In 2022, she served as president of the expert committee selecting the Catalan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Lara Fluxà).
Positions
Boards, advisory, teaching
Director, MACBA 2021–2026
Bouchra Khalili: Between Circles and Constellations · MACBA, 2023
Chief Curator, Kiasma, Helsinki
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané: A Leaf Shapes the Eye · MACBA, 2023
Max Andrews & Mariana Canepa Luna. Independent curatorial office, Barcelona
Notes for an Eye Fire. Panorama 21 · MACBA, 2021
Jessica Morgan & Alexis Lowry
Director & Curator, Dia Art Foundation, New York
Charlotte Posenenske: Work in Progress · MACBA, 2019
Chief Curator, MUAC, Mexico City
Andrea Fraser: L'1%, c'est moi · MACBA & MUAC, 2016