About
Dr Warren Harper (he/him) is a curator, researcher and writer currently based in Toronto, Canada. He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has worked with various arts organisations and institutions internationally. He is a member of the plumb, an ad hoc collective of Toronto-based artists, writers, and curators, and is currently Exhibition Manager at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto.
His research interests are at the intersection of art and nuclear culture, ecology, and sustainable and ethical curatorial practices. Warren’s work has also been preoccupied with art education, the art world and its accessibility, particularly from a working-class perspective. He advocates for an expanded understanding of the curatorial, its interdisciplinarity and how it engages with complex contexts.
image credit: Anna Lukala
News
5 March 2025
Joined the Curatorial Ethics Network.
25 January 2025
Book Launch: The Pleasure Report by New Mineral Collective (Tanya Busse and Emilija Škarnulytė).
Moderated a conversation with Busse and Škarnulytė.
Art Metropole, Toronto, Canada.
January 2025
Being Scene Juror with Natalie King and Alana Traficante.
Workman Arts, Toronto, Canada.
September - December 2024
Sessional Lecturer, teaching ‘Paradigmatic Exhibitions: Theory, History, Criticism’.
Master of Visual Studies in Curatorial Studies, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
University of Toronto, Canada.
August 2024
‘Collaboration over Competition (Expanded)’ by Emma Edmondson and Warren Harper, in Co-operative Education, Politics, and Art: Creative, Critical, and Community Resistance to Corporate Higher Education (2024).
Edited by Jackie Goodman and Richard Hudson-Miles.
Published by Routledge.
July 2024
Started Exhibition Manager position at MOCA Toronto.
30 June 2024
Awarded PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, ‘The Nuclearscapes of the Blackwater Estuary and Foulness Island: Towards an Interscalar Curatorial Practice’.
May 2024
‘Erratic Behaviour: Towards Sustainable Curatorial Strategies’ in Cornelia Magazine, Issue 15.
Buffalo, New York.
27 April 2024
How to Make a Bomb, NYABF Classroom presentation with Atomic Terrain.
Dia Art Foundation, Chelsea, New York City, USA.
24-28 April 2024
How to Make a Bomb with Atomic Terrain, Printed Matter’s New York Art Book Fair Project Space.
Chelsea, New York City, USA.
March 2024
In the Studio with Atomic Terrain. Interview by Jenny Wu for Art21.
February 2024
Joined the plumb, an ad hoc collective of artists, writers, and curators.
Toronto, Canada.
January 2024
‘Sand and Breath Turned to Glass: Tracing Nuclear Stories’, in BlackFlash Magazine 40.3.
Guest edited by Katie Lawson & Yasmin Nurming-Por.
December 2023
Started Visitor Services Manager position at MOCA Toronto.
14 October 2023
Panel discussion with Katie Lawson, Ryan Osman, Dave Mowat, Laura Murray, and Noah Scheinman
Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada.
19 July 2023
Exhibiting Oceans Curatorial Workshop, organised by Dr Pandora Syperek and Dr Sarah Wade.
Supported by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
University of East Anglia, UK.
2 July 2023
Atomic Terrain: Reading & Conversations with Gabriella Hirst and Lovely Umayam.
Wende Museum, Los Angeles, USA.
10 June 2023
Atomic Terrain: Reading, Conversation, and Plant Grafting with Gabriella Hirst, Lovely Umayam, Tammy Nguyen.
CARA, New York City, USA.
May 2023
‘Care and maintenance in perpetuity? The nuclear landscape of the Blackwater Estuary’ by Warren Harper and Nastassja Simensky, in St Peter-On-The-Wall: Landscape and heritage on the Essex coast, edited by Johanna Dale. Published by UCL Press.
February 2023
Left my position as Co-director of The Old Waterworks.
30-31 July 2022
The Long Count, by Nastassja Simensky.
The Old Waterworks, Southend-on-Sea, UK.
14 July 2022
How to Graft a Rose, workshop with Gabriella Hirst.
RADAR, International House, Loughborough University, UK.
11-19 June 2022
Whitstable Biennale: Afterwardness
Senior Project Manager of the biennale.
Whitstable, Kent, UK.
March 2022
Ruth Jones joins me as Co-director at The Old Waterworks.
October 2021
Joined The Other MA Board of Directors.
23 October 2021
The Rose Garden Conference, organised with Gabriella Hirst.
Featuring Aunty Sue Coleman Haseldine, Yhonnie Scarce (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia), activist and co-founder of ICAN, Dimity Hawkins (Naarm/Melbourne, Australia); Dr. David Burns (Royal College of Art, UK); Wayne Cocroft (Historic England, UK), Dr. Marleen Boschen (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK); Dr. Ele Carpenter (Umeå University, Sweden); activist and educator Kathleen Sullivan (USA); and Wesley Perriman (British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, UK).
11 September 2021
‘How to Make a Bomb’: Presentation and public rose grafting workshop, Gabriella Hirst.
Focal Point Gallery, UK.
11 September 2021 – 15 January 2022
Tip of the Iceberg, group exhibition, with Gabriella Hirst, and recommended reading list for the exhibition.
Focal Point Gallery, UK.
22 May – 19 June 2021
Precarious straits ~ Survival on Southend’s new coast, Southend-under-Sea.
Collaboration between The Old Waterworks and The Other MA, UK.
June 2021
Tender Order, by Jade Montserrat, made with Jane Lawson and edited by Industria.
Published by The Old Waterworks, UK.
May 2021
An English Garden book, by Gabriella Hirst and Warren Harper.
Published by The Old Waterworks, UK.
22nd May- 13th June 2021
An English Garden by Gabriella Hirst opens as part of Estuary Festival 2021
Gunners Park, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK
February 2021
’Collaboration over Competition’, by Emma Edmondson and Warren Harper, in Art Monthly 443.
22-23 October 2019
Decolonising the Nuclear: Public Lecture and Workshop, organised with Dr Ele Carpenter.
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
6 October 2019
How to Make a Bomb: a workshop on rose propagation, permaculture strategies and political plant biographies, with Gabriella Hirst, Graham Burnett and Simon White.
The Old Waterworks, Southend-on Sea, UK.
31 August, 2019
The Old Waterworks Relaunch
The Old Waterworks, Southend-on Sea, UK.
4-6 August 2019
Artist Gabriella Hirst in residence at The Old Waterworks, Southend on Sea, developing partnership for How to Make a Bomb.
10-12 April 2019
Approaching Estate: methodologies for practices of site and place.
A sensingsite event organised by Central Saint Martins.
Furtherfield Commons, London, UK.
11 March 2019
Exposing the Imperceptible, panel discussion with Gabriella Hirst and Yoi Kawakuba
Art Action UK (AAUK), Deptford X Project Space, London, UK.
30 November – 1 December 2018
The Nuclear Culture Research Symposium
Goldsmiths, University of London. Organised with Dr Ele Carpenter.
November 2018
Started Director position at The Old Waterworks.
26 October 2018
Radiological Deep Time, Session Two: Nuclear Landscapes.
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
22-23 September 2018
South London Gallery Fire Station Opening Weekend.
The culmination of my time as Project Manager of the Fire Station project.
South London Gallery, London, UK.
October 2018
Joined the Nuclear Culture Research Group.
September 2018
Started fully funded CHASE AHRC PhD studentship.
Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.
12 March 2017
Artist and curatorial talk with artist and curator James Ravinet.
Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo, Japan.
10-16 March 2017
Visual Research, Nuclear Research Residency Exhibition, with artist and curator James Ravinet.
Tenjinyama Art Studio, Sapporo, Japan.