Polly Staple
About the Curator
Polly Staple is an independent curator based in London. She previously held roles as Director of Collection, British Art at Tate; Director of Chisenhale Gallery; Director of Frieze Projects and Editor at Large of frieze magazine.
Since 2000, Staple has played a significant role in shaping contemporary art discourse, championing emerging artists and contributing to the development of major art collections. She often collaborates closely with artists to realise new commissions, exhibitions and publications to expand the definition of what contemporary art can be.
Staple is renowned for her award-winning program at Chisenhale Gallery and significant projects with artists such as Ed Atkins, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Helen Marten, Janice Kerbel, Camille Henrot, Ima-Abasi Okon, P. Staff, Mark Leckey and Hito Steyerl. The commissions she produced by Maria Eichhorn, Ed Atkins and Banu Cennetoğlu were recently recognised by ARTnews and frieze as three of the ‘Best Works of the 21st Century’.
Staple is the curator of monographic exhibitions by Lydia Ourahmane at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Venice and Camille Henrot at The Perimeter, London which both opened in 2026.
