For the last decade, Theo has worked on high-profile exhibitions of art and objects from across the world, including redisplaying several thousand ancient artifacts from China and South Asia at the British Museum and commissioning several of Britain’s leading contemporary artists to create new works for international display. He has worked on original commissions with artists such as Cornelia Parker and Hew Locke and overseen the transportation and installation of large-scale artistic works, from intricate glass sculptures to centuries-old totem poles.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:
Empowering Art: Indigenous Arts of the Pacific Northwest Coast
Co-Curator, Sainsbury Centre for Visual ArtsExhibition design: Andrés Ros Soto & Andrew Johnson
Exhibition photos: Andy Crouch
A ground-breaking exhibition of rich but rarely seen artworks, Empowering Art brought together exceptional contemporary and historical pieces from across the Northwest Coast of North America. Developed in close consultation with Indigenous artists and community leaders from across British Columbia, the exhibition showcased the talent of their artistic and cultural creations on a scale unseen in the UK since the 1970s. Bringing a contested past into the realities of the present, it told the story of a coastline with distinctive artistic and cultural traditions, where creative exchange is visible in historical objects but also resonates through contemporary art. The exhibition included works by renowned Indigenous artists Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Robert Davidson, Marianne Nicolson and Susan Point, as well as a new generation of artists including Morgan Asoyuf, Phil Gray and Danielle Morsette.
Jonathan Jones, The Guardian - “★★★★★. A radical and satisfying survey of nearly 250 years of Pacific Northwest culture...The show has a historical clarity that doesn’t disguise the violence Indigenous peoples have suffered but goes beyond the restitution debate to open up all the wonder and dreaming and sorrow these objects contain.”
John-Paul Stonard, Times Literary Supplement - “The first large display of Northwest Coast art in Britain…[an] exhibition with a strong story.”
Sethembile Msezane: Nibizwa Ngabangcwele
Project Curator, Sainsbury Centre for Visual ArtsCreated during a residency at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and in direct response to a carved Zulu snuff spoon from its collection, Msezane’s Phahla / Nibizwa Ngabangcwele explored the magic of snuff; a traditional medicine that also operates as a spiritual connector between the lives of the living and the wisdom of those that came before. Formed of a video work in conversation with an installation piece - of hands formed from wax sprinkling snuff onto a specialty built platform - the work speaks to intergenerational dialogues and explores the changing role of snuff over time.
Visions of Ancient Egypt
Assistant Curator, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts & Laing Art GalleryExhibition design: Andrés Ros Soto & Andrew Johnson
Exhibition photos: Andy Crouch
Coinciding with the bicentenary of Jean-François Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs and the centenary of Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, and bringing together over 150 works drawn from the UK and internationally, Visions of Ancient Egypt examined how ancient Egypt has shaped the modern cultural imagination - from antiquity through to the present day. This ground-breaking exhibition explored how the iconic motifs and visual styles of Egypt have been re-imagined and re-invented over time, from Piranessi to Shakespeare to Pop Art to Post-War Modernism – revealing a history closely entwined with conquest and colonial politics.
The exhibition included painting, sculpture, writing, fashion and architecture, alongside photography, film and installation art from artists as wide ranging as Joshua Reynolds, Hector Horeau, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, David Hockney, Chris Ofili and Awol Erizku, alongside works by modern and contemporary Egyptian artists including Sara Sallam and Chant Avedissian.
Alastair Sooke, The Telegraph - “A zesty new exhibition focusing on ancient Egypt’s “enduring appeal” for artists and designers.”
Celia Lyttelton, Inigo - “An ambitious and astonishing exhibition [that] sweeps across the millennia, from 2000 BC to the present day.”
China and South Asia Permanent Gallery: Prehistory to Present
Interpretation lead, British MuseumExhibition design: Nissen Richards Studio
Exhibition photos: James Stephenson
A major redisplay of Europe’s longest gallery, containing the British Museum’s world-class collection of over 2000 objects from across China and South Asia - from archaeological fragments to ceramic sculptures to light-sensitive painted scrolls. Working around the gallery’s Grade 1 listed cabinets, the redisplay introduced a newly conceived, up to date narrative taking the stories of China and South Asia from 1.5 million years ago up to the present day, by engaging visitors more directly with lesser-known histories as well as familiar stories, and by putting contemporary works in conversation with historic pieces.
Alongside a wealth of historic material including seals from the Indus Valley and Qing Dynasty lacquerware, the gallery contains artworks by contemporary artists Andy Warhol, Caroline Yi Cheng and Yang Yongliang, alongside a sitar donated by Ravi Shankar.
Marc Quinn: Drawn from Life
Exhibition Assistant, Sir John Soane’s MuseumA bold intervention by YBA artist Mark Quinn within the 18th century London home of Georgian architect John Soane. Quinn’s life-size cast statues, placed among the neoclassical forms and Greco-Roman relics located throughout Soane’s sumptuous home, put the space into a new light and, for visitors familiar with the space, acted to draw out often overlooked features throughout the museum. A highly reflexive installation, the exhibition was one of the first such shows within the museum.
Laura Cumming, The Guardian - “Each work is a different colour, running from the white of marble to slate-blue, taupe and the darkness of ancient bronze. They look perfectly at home at the Soane.”
Elly Parsons, Wallpaper magazine - “One of a handful of contemporary exhibitions displayed in the museum…this new offering is a particularly radical one.”