Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, is a curator and practising artist who received her BFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London (2002), a Diploma in Painting from the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2005) and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, London (2008). In 2003, she was appointed curator of Sharjah Biennial 6 and has since continued as the Biennial Director.

Al Qasimi is President of the Africa Institute and serves on the Board of Directors for MoMA PS1, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Ashkal Alwan, Beirut; Darat Al Funun, Amman and the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. She is President of the International Biennial Association; Chair of the Advisory Board for the College of Art and Design, University of Sharjah, and member of the Advisory Board for Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi.

She is currently a member of the Prince Claus Award Committee (2016–current) and is a member of the jury for the 5th edition of PinchukArtCentre’s Future Generation Art Prize (2018).

Al Qasimi has served on the juries and prize panels for the Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art (2018), Maria Lassnig Prize (2017), Mediacity Seoul Prize (2016), Hepworth Wakefield Prize for Sculpture (2016), Berlin International Film Festival among others.

Recent curatorial projects include major retrospectives for Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist (2017–2018), Yayoi Kusama: Dot Obsessions (2016–2017), Robert Breer: Time Flies (2016–2017), Simone Fattal (2016) and Farideh Lashai (2016) as well as 1980–Today: Exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates, UAE Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Rasheed Araeen: Before and After Minimalism (2014) and Susan Hefuna: Another Place (2014). Al Qasimi was co-curator for Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige: Two Suns in a Sunset (2016), exhibited not only in Sharjah but also at Jeu de Paume, Paris; Haus der Kunst, Munich and IVAM, Valencia. She co-curated the major survey shows When Art Becomes Liberty: The Egyptian Surrealists (1938–1965) in 2016 and The Khartoum School: The Making of the Modern Art Movement in Sudan (1945–Present) in 2016–2017.