Jonathan Watkins is an independent curator and writer. He was the Director of Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, UK) from 1999 until 2022. Previously he worked for a number of years in London, as Curator of the Serpentine Gallery (1995-97) and Director of Chisenhale Gallery (1990-95).
He has curated a number of large international exhibitions including the Biennale of Sydney (1998), Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art (Hayward Gallery, London 2001), Quotidiana (Castello di Rivoli, Turin 1999, Tate Triennial (2003), Shanghai Biennale (2006), Sharjah Biennial (2007), Negotiations (Today Art Museum, Beijing 2010) and the Guangzhou Triennial (2012). He was on the curatorial team for Europarte (Venice Biennale, 1997), Milano Europa 2000 and Riwaq (Palestinian Biennial 2007). He curated the Iraqi Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2013, Floating World, Bahrain in 2017 and The Quebec City Biennial, 2019.
Jonathan Watkins has written extensively on contemporary art. He has served on numerous committees and boards including the Imperial War Museum (2011– 16), Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee (2011– 13) and 14-18 Now: First World War Centenary Cultural Programme (2013– 17). He won the 1992 Prudential Award for the Visual Arts, UK and in 2013 was nominated as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine. In 2019 he received the inaugural Ampersand Foundation Award to realise the exhibition of his dreams (Carlo Crivelli, Ikon 2022).