Meet Roula Seikaly
A lot has changed at Humble Arts Foundation since 2005 when Amani Olu and I stared an online curatorial project called Group Show Dot Com, which later became Humble Arts Foundation. We partnered with galleries and organizations we admired to (try to!) bring some fire to the careers of "emerging" (does anyone still use that word?) art photographers we believed in – online and IRL. When I moved to Seattle in 2013 and shortly after Amani moved to Detroit, more of our focus moved online. What felt like a pet project or high school literary magazine became increasingly overwhelming.
Then, out of the blue in October 2015, a glowing email hit my inbox from Stef Halmos, an old colleague from my New York days, introducing me to Roula Seikaly, a writer looking to contribute exhibition reviews. That moment was a magical shift in Humble's history. Roula quickly became a regular contributor and has since become a true partner, holding equal weight in Humble’s projects and decisions. We collaborate on nearly every online exhibition and had the great honor of winning Blue Sky Gallery's 2019 curatorial prize for our show "An Inward Gaze.” Humble couldn't run as it does today without Roula.
After months of conversations and a couple of years of Roula as Humble's Senior Editor, we're delighted to officially update her role to Co-Curatorial Director. Moving forward, Roula and I will officially co-curate every single online show, alongside a roving guest curator (this quarter, it's Bryan Formhals. Kris Graves will follow in the fall).
Outside of Humble, Roula is a massively accomplished writer. She contributes regularly to Hyperallergic, KQEDArts, Photograph, and BOMB, and her writing has also appeared in Aperture, Saint Lucy, and Strange Fire Collective. She also curates countless exhibitions around the United States.
We're delighted and honored that Michael Chovan Dalton hosted her on his podcast Real Photoshow in April, on the occasion of Portraits Without People, the exhibition she recently curated at Axis Gallery (before the quarantine).
Thanks for reading (and listening!)
Jon Feinstein
Co-Founder and Co-Curatorial Director