Painting by Caroline von Grone, Omar the Prophet

Omar Kholeif is an artist, author, curator, cultural historian and professor of global art theory and practice at the Glasgow School of Art and Program Leader of the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice with the University of Glasgow.

Luísa Correia Pereira World Child Front Cover Courtesy of Sternberg Press and artPost21

They work and operate under numerous guises, including as the avatar of Doctor O—The World’s Leading Pop Physician (TM).

Born in Cairo, Egypt, they were raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Los Angeles, CA, and elsewhere. An author of over two dozen volumes on art, a curator of over 100 exhibitions, they are the co-founding director of artPost21, a not-for-profit publishing and broadcast platform for artists and their dreamwork.

Simone Fattal imagine otherwise Cover Courtesy Sternberg Press and artPost21

Their recent books include, Nil Yalter: Circular Tension (2024), Otobong Nkanga: Stitched Dreams (2024) and Internet_Art: From the Birth of the Web to the Rise of NFTs (2023).

Huguette Caland imagine otherwise cover Courtesy of Sternberg Press and artPost21

In 2025 their long-awaited critical biography on Huguette Caland was published as part of imagine/otherwise. Forthcoming in 2026 is Luísa Correia Pereira: World Child, published by Sternberg Press. Forthcoming projects include the curated group exhibition, Fellow Travelers at Tabari Art Space, Dubaiand a survey exhibition of their creative practice at The Third Line curated by Sofia Victorino.