About Leeza Ahmady

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Born and raised in Afghanistan and based in New York, Ahmady is noted for curating large-scale multidisciplinary exhibitions, artistic collaborations, and performance-based experimental forums. Recently Ahmady became the director of programs at the Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts (FSA) established to nurture connections between religious faith, and contemporary art. After studying political science, art history, and philosophy at St. John’s University, Ahmady began creating compelling unexpected encounters between art and the public at popular New York nightclubs to showcase artists immersed in site-specific installation, sound, performance, and new media works. Next, her ground breaking research on post-Soviet Central Asia and the region’s reorientation to pre-Communist nomadic and Islamic identities earned her an MA from Pratt Institute, with presentations at important international venues and exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, Asia Art Archive Hong Kong, and dOCUMENTA (13) Kassel, Germany and Kabul, Afghanistan. She has directed New York’s acclaimed Asia Contemporary Art Week (ACAW) since 2005—the premier US platform for leading museums and galleries dedicated to showcasing both reputable and lesser-known artists and dialogues from across all regions of Asia, including the Middle East. Ahmady’s highly distinguished collaborative approach to empowering the arts as a vital source for creating consciousness in society has enabled over 3000 diverse practitioners to present their perspectives at notable local and international institutions, art fairs, and auction houses, including Asia Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, MoMA, ICI- Independent Curators International, Queens Museum, Sotheby’s, Performa, Alserkal Avenue and many more. She has also contributed writings to prominent publications, such as Flash Art, Ocula, and Manifesta Journal, among others.

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