IBA Stage: 15th Shanghai Biennale – Daisy Desrosiers

15th Shanghai Biennale Co-Curator Daisy Desrosiers. Photo: Jane Kratochvil

IBA Stage: 15th Shanghai Biennale – Daisy Desrosiers
April 22, 2026 – 11:00 am (EDT GMT-4)
Online

We are pleased to welcome Daisy Desrosiers as one of the invited speakers for the upcoming IBA Stage, dedicated to the 15th Shanghai Biennale, Does the flower hear the bee?.

Daisy Desrosiers is an interdisciplinary art historian, curator, and museum leader whose practice spans major international exhibitions, institutional leadership, and research-driven curatorial work. She most recently served as co-curator of the 15th Shanghai Biennale, working closely with artists from across the world on one of the most significant international exhibitions of contemporary art.

She is currently Director and Chief Curator of The Gund at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, a teaching museum dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century art and visual culture. Since joining the institution in 2021, she has led its curatorial and strategic vision, overseeing exhibitions, public programming, and collection development while fostering close collaboration with faculty, students, artists, and the broader community. Her work at The Gund emphasizes the museum as a site of inquiry and exchange, expanding access and amplifying diverse voices within contemporary art.

Prior to this, Desrosiers was Director of Artist Programs at the Lunder Institute for American Art at the Colby College Museum of Art, where she developed research initiatives, community partnerships, and multidisciplinary public programs. She has also held fellowships such as the Nicholas Fox Weber Curatorial Fellowship at the Glucksman Museum in Cork.

In addition to her work on the Shanghai Biennale, she was a co-curator of the inaugural MOCA Toronto Triennale (GTA21) and has contributed to major exhibitions including No Justice Without Love at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York. Her curatorial practice is deeply collaborative and artist-centered, reflected in her work with a wide range of contemporary artists across different contexts.

Desrosiers has contributed writing to numerous publications, including the New Museum Triennial catalogue and As We Rise (Aperture, 2021), and has conducted interviews with artists such as Joan Jonas and Claudia Alarcón & Silät. Her leadership in the field has been recognized through her participation in the Center for Curatorial Leadership (CCL) Class of 2023, where she was mentored by Glenn D. Lowry.

She is also a member of the Advisory Committee of Fogo Island Arts and serves on the Board of Directors of the Art Gallery at University College Cork, contributing to initiatives that engage with contemporary art in relation to place, community, and institutional practice.

Desrosiers holds a BA in Art History from the Université de Montréal and an MA in Art History from the Université du Québec à Montréal, where her research focused on the cultural, postcolonial, and material dimensions of sugar in contemporary art.

Her curatorial approach is grounded in critical inquiry and collaboration, positioning artist voices as central modes of learning and unlearning, and advancing the museum as a pedagogical space shaped by dialogue, care, and experimentation.

As part of this IBA Stage, Daisy Desrosiers will reflect on the development of the 15th Shanghai Biennale, offering insight into its collaborative curatorial process, its expanded understanding of exhibition-making, and its engagement with contemporary global conditions.

We look forward to welcoming you on April 22 at 11:00 am (EDT GMT-4), please make sure to register through this link.