Mala Yamey is Curator at UP Projects and has worked in the contemporary art world for several years working on curating public commissions, public programmes, and devising international partnerships. Mala leads on curating and producing UP Projects’ public art commissions; she is currently working on Bodies of Water and further upcoming projects.
Alongside her role at UP Projects, Mala works as Programmes Curator at Art South Asia Project (ASAP) and as a freelance writer. Mala has published writing with La Gazette Drouot International, Paris; The Earth Issue, London; Lychee One Gallery, London; Still Point Journal, London; UP Projects, London; TAKE Magazine, India; and TARQ, Mumbai. Mala is also a member of The Lazy Susans Collective, with whom she curates exhibitions, collage workshops and community events. Her independent research focusses on South Asian contemporary art and its UK diaspora, and she is pursuing a research project into cultural exchange between South Asia and the USSR during the Non-Aligned Movement.
Mala has worked for over seven years in the contemporary art world spanning the non-profit and commercial sectors including Art South Asia Project (ASAP), Invisible Dust, Kochi Biennale Foundation, Levy Gorvy, and Sotheby’s. Her curatorial projects include MOONMOTH by Tania Kovats at WOW Festival in Manchester, May 2024; Bloc Projects Members Show at Bloc Projects in Sheffield, October 2023; Sea Change (featuring commissions by Dana Olarescu, Melanie Manchot, Raqs Media Collective, Simon Faithfull) at the Royal Docks in London, May 2023; Grace Ndiritu – An Absolute River at LUX in London, May – July 2022. Mala also participated in the British Council Curatorial Delegation during India Art Fair in February 2024.
Mala has a BA in History of Art from Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge (2016); an MA with Distinction in History of Art from The Courtauld Institute of Art (2017); and most recently, received an MA with Distinction in Curating Contemporary Art from The Royal College of Art (2022).