Lisa Le Feuvre is a curator, writer, editor and public speaker. In 2017 she was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of Holt/Smithson Foundation, an artist endowed foundation that aims to continue the creative and investigative legacies of the artists Nancy Holt and Robert Smithson.
Focusing on art as a powerful force to retune perceptions, Le Feuvre's research takes the form of exhibitions, publications, collections and public lectures. Committed to communicating and testing ideas, she has curated exhibitions in museums and galleries across Europe, published her writings in international publications and journals, spoken in museums and universities across the world, and has played a pivotal role in shaping academic and arts organizations.
Between 2010 and 2017 Le Feuvre was Head of Sculpture Studies at the Henry Moore Institute, a part of the Henry Moore Foundation. She led a program of education, research, publications and exhibitions, and the development of the Leeds sculpture and collection archive. Previously Le Feuvre taught on the post-graduate Curatorial Program at Goldsmiths College, led the contemporary art program at the National Maritime Museum and was Course Director of the post-graduate program in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has sat on various juries including Sculpture Dublin (2021), Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation Prize (2019),the Turner Prize (2018), Hepworth Prize for Sculpture (2016), British representation at the Venice Biennale (2015), the Max Mara Prize for Women (2013), and co-curated the quinquennial exhibition British Art Show 7: In the Days of the Comet (2009–10).
Life and early career
Le Feuvre was born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, emigrating to the UK in her mid-teens, first to the south of England. Three years later she moved to London to study Social Sciences, followed by Architecture, Arts Management, and Visual Cultures.
She started her work as a curator at The Photographers’ Gallery, initiating an innovative program of talks, events, and film screenings as well as curating exhibitions including 'Mediterranean: Between Reality and Utopia', 'Donovan Wylie: The Maze' (with Magnum Photographs), 'Pierre Bourdieu: In Algeria: Testimonies of Uprooting' (with Camera Austria), and 'Hashem El Madani: Studio Practices' (with Akram Zataari), which won the 2005 the John Kobal Photography Book Prize. In the early 2000s she co-initiated the experimental exhibition and performance space Hoxton Distillery in east London, between 2002 and 2003 was Curator of Public Programs at Tate Britain, and from 2003 to 2005 co-ordinated the Parknights series of talks, discussions, and films at the Serpentine Gallery.
Through the 2000s Le Feuvre was based in academia. Until 2004 she was Course Director of the postgraduate program in Arts Policy and Management at Birkbeck College, London and then taught on the postgraduate Curatorial Program at Goldsmiths, University of London. In addition she contributed to the MA in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute, BA Arts Management at London Southbank University, and the Foundation in Art and Design at Chelsea School of Art, London. She continues to examine doctoral research and deliver guest lectures to international art schools and universities.
Le Feuvre lives in London, UK and New Mexico, USA.
Curatorial projects and institutional Leadership
Le Feuvre has curated more than sixty exhibitions as an institutional and independent curator, played a pivotal role in shaping academic and arts organizations, edited over thirty books and journals, spoken at 150 museums and universities across the world, and has published more than 125 essays and interviews with artists. Her curatorial practice started in artist-run spaces, with her first published writing on dance music and the London night club scene.