Alexandra Stock is a Swiss/American contemporary art curator, arts manager, culture writer, artist, and consultant based in Cairo who has held curatorial and/or managerial positions at four cultural institutions in the MENA region. She is the Creative Director of ARCHiNOS – Egypt’s leading architecture, design and conservation firm that operates at the intersections of tangible & intangible cultural heritage and contemporary art & design – and Program Officer of the Sultan Foundation, a not-for-profit arm of ARCHiNOS that also runs MASQ, an exhibition space situated in the recently-restored heritage site of Ma’qad of Sultan Qaitbey.
Stock graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts with BA in Fine Arts and a specialization in Art Theory, completed De Appel’s renowned Curatorial Program in Amsterdam and studied Arabic at the DEAC in Cairo. She is a participant of the yearlong Townhouse Curatorial Program and the six-month Townhouse Independent Study Program in Cairo, the first initiatives of their kind both offered in and focused on the history & historiography of art in the greater Middle East. In New York she took courses at the International Center of Photography and participated in an ICI Curatorial Intensive; she is also a recent alumna of the contemporary critical theory-focused Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art.
Stock worked as a curator, and as manager of the international artist-in-residence program at the Townhouse Gallery, was chief curator and managing director of Al Riwaq Art Space in Bahrain and managing director of the art initiative and exhibition space Beirut in central Cairo. She wrote the proposal that brought the One Minutes Video Awards Africa to Egypt and subsequently project managed the event at Rawabet Theater. Stock consulted for the Bahrain Ministry of Culture & Antiquities and represented the Middle East in the International Council, an advisory board of PBS’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning TV series ART:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century. She has written for Ibraaz, MadaMasr, TINTERA, Tribe Photo Magazine, Sunday Gallery in Zurich and Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam, among others, and has been quoted in or interviewed for The Guardian, The New York Times, and Art – Das Kunstmagazin. Her curatorial work has been featured in Canvas Magazine, Scene Arabia, and Hyperallergic.
Stock’s notable curated projects include the co-curated Bourgeois Leftovers at De Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam that merged new commissions with genre paintings from the Van Abbemuseum and featured programming at the Stedelijk Museum and Eye Film Museum (2013); the six-week Alwan338//Foundations festival in Bahrain with site-specific work by 27 local artists and international resident artists (2014); the touring photography project Modern Miracles that was first exhibited in a 15th-century heritage site in Cairo (2017–18); an archival exhibition in two locations on the occasion of the British Council‘s 80th anniversary in Egypt (2018); The 29th Letter of the Alphabet, an art fair-like collaboration with five Cairene galleries staged in a large Belle Époque building in Downtown Cairo (2019); and Occupational Hazards at apexart, the NYC Open Call winning group exhibition with work by 14 artists with ties to the MENA region that was selected from over 500 proposals (2019). These projects featured dozens of outstanding artists, among them Ahmed Naji, Ayreen Anastas, Dina Danish, graphic design studio Eps51, Ganzeer, the estate of Hamed Abdalla, Hany Rashed, Hassan Hajjaj, Huda Lutfi, Jasmina Metwaly, Karin Sander, Khaled Hourani, Lara Baladi, Lydia Davis, Marlene Dumas, Mohamed Abla, Nile Sunset Annex, Rene Gabri, Rheim Alkadhi, the estate of Seif Wanly, Shuruq Harb, Taha Belal, Waheeda Malullah, and Walead Beshty. Recent projects include Aya Tarek’s solo exhibition The Fear of Missing Out at SHELTER Art Space in Alexandria (2020) and Mona Marzouk in the travelling group show Notes For Tomorrow, initiated by ICI in NYC (2021–2024).
Most recently, Stock co-juried the Cairotronica Festival of Electronic and New Media Arts along with Sami Khatib and Heba Y. Amin, and joined Art d’Égypte as a guest curator and curating board member for its 2019 season. During this time, the private initiative received patronage of the UNESCO for its collaborative efforts to promote and exhibit contemporary Egyptian art with the support of various ministries, while highlighting and preserving local heritage sites. In addition to her work with ARCHiNOS and the Sultan Foundation, Stock is currently curating and managing select projects on a freelance basis and pursuing graduate degrees in Global Diplomacy/Cultural Policy at SOAS University of London and Cultural Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
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alexandrastock1011 @ gmail . com
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Creative Director
ARCHiNOS Architecture & Heritage Preservation Cairo (2020–)
Program Officer
Sultan Foundation Cairo (2020–)
Curator
Al Riwaq Art Space Bahrain (Chief Curator 2013–14)
Townhouse Gallery Cairo (Associate Curator 2008–10, Curator 2011–12)
Guest Curator
apexart New York City
Art d’Égypte Cairo
De Appel Arts Centre Amsterdam
MASQ (Ma’qad of Sultan Qaitbey Center for Culture and Arts) Cairo
Photography Museum Braunschweig Braunschweig (Germany)
Greek Cultural Center Alexandria
British Council Egypt Cairo
SHELTER Art Space Alexandria
ICI (Independent Curators International) New York City
Managing Director
Beirut (art initiative and exhibition space), Cairo (2014–15)
Al Riwaq Art Space, Bahrain (2013–14)
Manager Intl. Artist-in-Residence Program
Townhouse Gallery, Cairo (2008–12)
Consultant
K Project Space Cairo
Bahrain Ministry of Culture and Antiquities
Various individuals who went on to curate projects independently & at institutions
Misc. Positions
Ibraaz, Cairo/London (Cultural Correspondent)
Terre des Hommes, Cairo/Geneva (Photographic Documentation)
Mediamatic, Cairo/Amsterdam (Culture Guide)
SommerTheater Winterthur, Switzerland (Administration, Archives)
Board Member
Art d’Égypte Cairo (Curating Board)
Townhouse Gallery, Cairo (Advisory Board)
PBS NYC (International Council/Advisory Board)
Jury Member
Cairotronica Festival of Electronic Art and New Media Art
apexart NYC Open Call for exhibition projects
Accented Residency Network
RESÒ International Network for Art Residencies
Art Fairs
ZOOM Contemporary Art Fair Miami
Joburg Art Fair Johannesburg
Art Athina Athens
Writer (see also)
Ibraaz
Mada Masr
TINTERA
Tribe Photo Magazine
Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam
Cairo Contemporary Dance Center
Sunday Gallery Zurich
Mediamatic Travel
Copywriter and copy editor
Cairo Contemporary Dance Center (CCDC)
Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF)
American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham)
Chatham House members
Egypt Oil & Gas Magazine
Personal Mentions
The Guardian
The New York Times
art–Das Kunstmagazin (interview)
Public Events
apexart, NYC (Public program and multiple public tours)
ICI Independent Curators International, NYC (Public symposium)
NVIC Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (Public panel)
Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht NL (Project presentation)
EYE Film Institute Netherlands, Amsterdam (Moderator)
Grants (excluding project grants)
CIMAM Conference Travel Grant (Getty Foundation)
The Force of Art: Research from a Global Perspective, awarded with Dr. Ilka Eickhof (Prince Claus, ECF, Hivos)
FfAI Foundation for Arts Initiatives
Association of Swiss Professional Photographers SBF
Residencies
Kunsthuis SYB Beetsterzwaag NL
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Education
2020–22 · MA Cultural Economics & Arts, Culture and Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam
2018–22 · MA Global Diplomacy, SOAS University of London
2012–13 · Curatorial Program, De Appel Arts Centre Amsterdam
2004–09 · BA Fine Arts, specialization in Art Theory, Zurich University of the Arts
2000–03 · BSc Biology (hons., incomplete), Lynn University, FL
1998–99 · Foundation Diploma Art & Design (Gestalterischer Vorkurs), F+F School of Art and Design Zurich
Professional Development
2021 · Università Bocconi via Coursera Corporate Sustainability
2019 · Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art NYC (Contemporary Critical Theory, focus: States of Consciousness in Cognitive Capitalism)
2017 · Adsum Art Consultancy Cairo, The Collector’s Workshop (Course in the Structure of the Commercial Art World)
2015 · ICI Curatorial Intensive NYC (Professional Development Program for Curators)
2015 · NODE Center for Curatorial Studies, Berlin (Online courses in Art Criticism and Writing; Developing an Art Organisation)
2014–15 · Le Département d’Enseignement de l’Arabe Contemporain (DEAC), Institut Français d’Égypte au Caire (700 hrs/25 ECTS)
2014 · SiebundBrot, Zurich (Screen-printing workshop)
2010 · Townhouse ISP Cairo (History & Historiography of Art in the MENA Region)
2008 · Townhouse Curatorial Program Cairo (Curating, Critical Theory, Art Criticism, Arts Management)
2008 · Contemporary Image Collective (CiC), Cairo (Course in Building a Photography Portfolio)
2008 · International Center of Photography (ICP), NYC (Summer Program focused on Street Photography and Portfolio Building)
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As an artist, Stock was awarded the grand prize of the first photo marathon in the Middle East and has exhibited or screened her work in Aarau, Amsterdam, Belgrade, Braunschweig, Breda, Brussels, Cairo, Dahab, Essen, Kampala, Lomé, Maastricht, Paris, Strumica, Târgu Mureș, Utrecht, Winterthur and Zurich, including at the Amsterdam Biennale, CiC in Cairo and at photoSCHWEIZ, Europe’s largest annual photo exhibition. Two of her videos are in the collection of the One Minutes Official Selection: Africa Series.
Solo Exhibitions
Night Lights, Cappuccino, Winterthur (Photography)
Es ist alles ein Spiel, schau, SommerTheater Winterthur (Photography)
Group Exhibitions
Dark and Stormy #7 Plan B, Amsterdam (Curators Rustan Söderling, Bart de Baets)
Risha Zine CHAOS Le 61, Paris (Curators Risha Zine team)
Transeuropa Festival of Arts Belgrade
International Dahab Arts Festival (Curator Enas Elsadiek)
Cairo Photo Marathon CIC, Cairo (Curator Mia Jankowicz)
The Popular Show Townhouse Gallery, Cairo (Curator Sarah Rifky)
Amsterdam Biennale (Curators Jans Possel, Willem Velthoven)
Young At Art ArtSeefeld Gallery, Zurich (Curators Pius Müller, Dayadi Müller)
PhotoSCHWEIZ Maag Event Hall, Zurich (Curator Peter G. Kurath)
Screenings
One Minute Film & Video Festival, Aarau, Switzerland
Madisz Alter-Native International Short Film Festival, Târgu Mureș, Romania
International Festival RECITAL, Lomé, Togo
Hard//hoofd, Online publication for art, literature and journalism, Amsterdam
AsterFest International Short Film Festival, Strumica, Macedonia
The One Minutes Selection screenings in the Netherlands and Belgium:
Amsterdam Museum
Netherlands Media Art Institute NIMk, Amsterdam
deBuren, Brussels
Central Museum, Utrecht
Graphic Design Museum, Breda
Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort
Marres Center for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht
SCHUNK Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Heerlen
Awards, Collections, etc.
Cairo Photo Marathon Grand prize of the first photo marathon in the Middle East
The One Minutes Official Selection: Africa Series Permanent collection
The International One Minutes Awards Finalist international competition, Amsterdam
The One Minutes Africa Awards Finalist continent-wide competition, Cairo
Young At Art Winner of an annual art-university-wide competition & subsequent exhibition at Gallery ArtSeefeld, Zurich
Association of Swiss Professional Photographers SBF Exhibition grant for photoZÜRICH
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Alexandra Stock 
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