SINGAPORE – Singaporean art historian and curator Charmaine Toh has been appointed senior curator of international art (photography) at Tate, a British network of four museums comprising the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives.

Her role, according to a listing on Tate’s website, involves developing its collection of photography, leading the strategy for positioning photography within the field of modern and contemporary art, and curating exhibitions.

In her former role as senior curator at the National Gallery Singapore, Dr Toh has curated blockbuster exhibitions around Singaporean and South-east Asian photography. These include Living Pictures: Photography In Southeast Asia (2022) and Chua Soo Bin: Truths And Legends (2019), the gallery’s first photography exhibition spotlighting the Cultural Medallion recipient.

Dr Toh is also the author of Imagining Singapore: Pictorial Photography From The 1950s To The 1970s (2023), the first comprehensive study on the history of pictorial photography in Singapore, and the editor of History And Imagination: Modern Photography From Singapore (2021).

In addition to being a co-curator of the 2013 Singapore Biennale, Dr Toh has curated exhibitions around the region, including at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea, and, in Japan, the Fukutake House at the Setouchi Triennale and BankArt Yokohama.