FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art has appointed artist and writer Asad Raza as Artistic Director of its third edition, on view from 16 July through 5 October 2025.
Raza contributed two commissioned works as an artist at FRONT 2022: Delegation, in which Raza and seven musicians sailed across Lake Erie, composing a piece of music they later performed at Cleveland’s Old Stone Church; and Orientation, a public sculpture resembling both an astronomical tool and a children’s slide, made from mussel shells. And so this concern for ecology, geography and human systems threads through his curating, too.
‘Our fragile planetary existence demands we find new ways to discover our interconnectedness with other beings, cultures, natures, and worlds – exploring this has been my ambition in art,’ Raza said of his appointment. ‘I relish the chance to continue this exploration collaboratively, at the scale and with the level of ambition of FRONT. Though a Buffalonian also from the shores of Lake Erie, FRONT International introduced me to Northeast Ohio and made me realize: I love Cleveland.’
Born in Buffalo, USA, and living between New York and Leipzig, Raza follows artist and educator Michelle Grabner (FRONT 2018) and designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy (FRONT 2022) to direct the upcoming edition. Raza has previously contributed to Venice Architecture Biennale (2014), LUMA Arles, collaborations with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and dramaturgical work for Tino Sehgal. His writing has also appeared in his writing has appeared in n+1, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Spike, among others.
Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art has also appointed scholar and curator Magdalena Moskalewicz to the position of Chief Curator, joining from Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught for seven years.
