Lawrence Abu Hamdan United Kingdom, b. 1985

Lawrence Abu Hamdan studied Sonic Arts at Middlesex University in the UK, where he combined acoustic phenomena with artistic experimentation. He later completed his MA and PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he worked with Forensic Architecture, researching the role of sound in legal investigations and political discourse.

Abu Hamdan has held fellowships and visiting professorships at the University of Chicago, the New School in New York, and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His projects, which examine the political and cultural dimensions of sound and listening, have been presented in leading museums and institutions and at major international art events, including MoMA in New York, MUAC in Mexico, the 22nd Sydney Biennale, the 58th Venice Biennale, the 11th Gwangju Biennale, the 13th and 14th Sharjah Biennial, the 34th São Paulo Biennial, Tate Modern, Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. His works are part of the collections of Reina Sofia, MoMA, the Guggenheim, Hamburger Bahnhof, Van Abbemuseum, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, Jameel Arts Centre, Kadist, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Sharjah Arts Foundation, among others.

Internationally acclaimed, Abu Hamdan has won the Grand Prize at the Winterthur International Film Festival, the 2020 Toronto Biennial Audience Prize, the Edvard Munch Art Award in 2019, the prestigious Turner Prize for Contemporary Art in the UK in 2019, Best Short Film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2017 and 2016, and the Nam June Paik Prize for New Media.