ICM Lecture Series
Fall 2026
JOHN TAIN (Carnegie Museum of Art)
Of Mountains and Seas: Lahore Biennale and the Global in the Present
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Goldwin Smith Hall, G22 | 4:45 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.
The Institute for Comparative Modernities is pleased to welcome curator John Tain to campus for a lecture about his recent work, “Of Mountains and Seas: Lahore Biennale and the Global in the Present.”
BIO
John Tain is Director of Curatorial Affairs at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, USA. He curated the third edition of the Lahore Biennale (2024), and from 2017 to 2023 served as Head of Research at Asia Art Archive. Before starting as Director of Curatorial Affairs at Carnegie Museum of Art in December 2025, John Tain organized “Of Mountains and Seas,” the third edition of the Lahore Biennale (2024). From 2017-2023, he served as Head of Research at Asia Art Archive, where exhibitions and projects included “translations, expansions,” documenta fifteen (Kassel, 2022), “Art Schools of Asia” (2021-22), “Crafting Communities,” (Hong Kong, 2020), and “Out of Turn,” Serendipity Arts Festival (Goa, 2018). Prior to that, he was a curator for modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute. He serves as an advisor to Asia Forum. Before his current position as Director of Curatorial Affairs at Carnegie Museum of Art, John Tain organized “Of Mountains and Seas,” the third edition of the Lahore Biennale (2024). As Head of Research at Asia Art Archive (AAA, 2017-2023), his projects included AAA’s contribution to documenta fifteen (2022); the Art Schools of Asia seminar and symposium (2021-22); the exhibition Crafting Communities (2020), devoted to Thailand-based Womanifesto; and MAHASSA (Modern Art Histories in and across Africa, and South and Southeast Asia, 2019-2020), a collaboration with the Dhaka Art Summit and the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University. He has served as a series editor for Afterall’s Exhibition Histories, and is a co-editor for Intersecting Modernisms, with Pamela Corey, Iftikhar Dadi, Salah Hassan, Mari-Carmen Ramirez, and Ming Tiampo.
