Shaheen Merali is a curator and writer based between Berlin and London.  Between 2003-8 he was Head of Department for Exhibitions, Film and New Media at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, where he curated the exhibitions ‘The Blaxk Atlantic’, ‘Dreams and Trauma’, ‘Moving Images and the Promised Lands of Re-Imagining Asia’, ‘One Thousand Years of Seperation’ amongst others.

In 2008, he was the Artistic Director of the Bodhi galleries in New York, Mumbai, Berlin and Singapore, for which he curated ‘Blindstars, Starsblind’ (Bodhi Berlin) a monographic exhibition of Shilpa Gupta, and the seminal ‘Everywhere is War (and rumours of war)’ for Bodhi Mumbai, India.  Previously in 2006, he was co-curator of the 6th Gwangju Bienniale of Korea (2006).

In February 2009, he curated the large-scale historical show, ‘The Untold (the rise of) Schisms’ at Alcala 31 in Madrid accompanied by a publication that traces the rise of the political right within popular Indian culture and its neighbouring regions.  In Autumn 2009 he curated ‘The Dark Science of Five Continents’ (BMB Gallery, Mumbai), ‘The Promise of Loss’ (Kunsthalle Brot, Vienna), ‘Eerie and Languid’ (The State Museum, Tblisi) and ‘Augmented Flaw’ (Kunstagenten, Berlin) – all exhibitions that have dealt with rise of uncertanties in a world midst of transformations.  Merali has edited several volumes, including Far Near Distance, Contemporary Poisitions for Iranian Artists (2004), Spaces and Shadows, Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia and About Beauty (2005), New York – States of Mind and Re-Imagining Asia (Saqi Books 2007).