Kim Shaw, co-creator and curator of The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion for The Wrong Biennale, will talk about the experience of working on the pavilion and the experimental programme that accompanies it. Join us on Tuesday, 10 February at 5:30pm UK-time for a deep dive into her unique application of criticality. Tickets are on sale now in our [cloud] Shop.
The New York Times called The Wrong Biennale the digital world’s answer to Venice and “a democratic alternative to the often elitist system of fairs.” The Biennale is currently in its 7th edition, with the current iteration tasked with “embracing a world transformed by AI.” The Doughnut (W)Hole Pavilion, co-created and curated by Kim features the work of 14 artists and asks questions about holes and wholes in the Age of AI.
As an artist and former director of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation Photofusion, Kim has spent much of her career thinking deeply about the system we know as the artworld. Her artistic practice is best described as institutional critique, often taking aim at the idea of the exhibition itself. These interests, combined with a lifelong curiosity about quantum theory, informed the curation of The Doughnut. The fundamental interconnectedness and non-linearity of the quantum world is a powerful metaphor when considering what an exhibition could be, who is included, and who isn’t. The quantum world prioritises shared (entangled) experiences, thus having implications for the dissemination of artwork, including where an exhibition/happening is situated, what happens in (and out of) the space, and the relationship between the audience and the artworks themselves. A queering of the traditional exhibition model is long overdue and thedoughnutwhole.com tests some experimental, dare we call them punk, ideas about the nature of the exhibition and the role of the curator.
Kim Shaw is an American artist and curator based in London. Shaw is influenced by ideas from the quantum world such as coalescence and relational quantum mechanics. In her curatorial practice, as in her own artistic practice, she is in constant conversation with these concepts, asking specifically what the quantum world has to offer the artist/curator. Shaw’s curatorial practice was developed during her time as Director of Brixton based NPO Photofusion (2015- 2024) where she was responsible for delivering the organisation’s objective of supporting underrepresented artists alongside delivering Photofusion’s artistic programme. Her most recent curatorial project is The Doughnut (W)Hole, a digital pavilion and live happening (Hapax Living Room) which is part of the 7th edition of The Wrong Biennale (Nov 2025-March 2026).
Shaw’s work has been exhibited as a part of London Art Fair’s Photo 50 (2020), at Soho Photo Gallery in New York on three occasions, and as a solo show at Jenny Blythe Fine Art at Art Jericho. Her work has been featured in the FT, BBC online, Huck Magazine, and Uncertain States. She has chaired a number of panels, including “On the Making and Materiality of Photography” at London Art Fair and “On Photography” at The Photographer’s Gallery. She has been nominated for the Royal Photographic Society’s 100 Heroines. Her MA dissertation at Central Saint Martins was awarded. She has recently been awarded a residency at The Hosking Houses Trust which she will complete in 2026.
