Yasmin Nurming-Por is a curator and cultural researcher based in Toronto, Canada. Select curatorial projects include Sagrada Mercancia (Santiago, Chile), ATLAS ARTS (Isle of Skye, UK), Xiao Museum of Contemporary Art (Rizhao, PRC), Images Festival (Toronto, CA), and the Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff, CA). In 2023, she co-founded commercial gallery two seven two. She has held curatorial and research positions at organizations including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Walter Phillips Gallery and Global Affairs Visual Art Collection. Yasmin is a SSHRC-funded doctoral candidate in the department of art history at the University of Toronto, where her research examines artist exchanges and exhibitions related to the Non-Aligned Movement in Egypt, India, and the former Yugoslavia.
As a cultural researcher, my projects are grounded in the guiding principles of collaboration, close listening, and contextual sensitivity. Trained as an art historian, my projects span curatorial, editorial, academic, teaching and production frameworks. For me, working collaboratively aligns with my belief that meaningful cultural production is the result of shared knowledge and that cross-cultural/disciplinary conversations yield the richest insights. As such, I’ve had the chance to work with artists, curators, farmers, conservation specialists, tradespeople, children, and community members both inside and outside of gallery settings. My commitment to close listening reflects this desire to learn by approaching conversations with collaborators with an open mind and a readiness to challenge my worldview. This has been especially true of my projects working with First Nations, Indigenous artists and those outside of secular capitalist societies in the Global North. Of my three guiding principles, contextual sensitivity remains the common denominator, ensuring that each project responds to the nuances of site and place. This often entails a familiarity with the lived reality of each artist, or community, and their conditions of artistic or cultural production. Inspired by the work of theorist Denise da Silva’s writing on race and difference, my projects strive to bring locations and worldviews in dialogue as a space of negotiation and mutual respect.
