Léuli Eshrāghi, Artist and Curator of Indigenous Practices, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, Canada)

Léuli Eshrāghi belongs to the Sāmoan clans Seumanutafa and Tautua, and the Persian diaspora, and lives and works in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Their practice prioritizes Indigenous, Black and Asian art and design, sensual and spoken languages, and ceremonial-political practices.

They have curated or contributed to various exhibitions, juries, residencies and gatherings in contemporary art centres and art museums in Québec, Canada, France, Australia, Hawaiʻi and Aotearoa.

Author of Indigenous Aesthetics and Knowledges for Great Ocean Renaissances (Common Room Editions, 2023), co-editor, with Camille Larivée, of the essay collection D'horizons et d'estuaires : entre mémoires et créations autochtones (Éditions Somme toute, 2020), and author of articles published in various journals. Their essay Bambae ol stamba fasin blong lukaotem mo kasem ol wanwan saed blong solwora i no save lusum (Highly Commended, AAANZ Arts Writing and Publishing Awards 2023) was conceived for the monograph Daniel Boyd: Treasure Island.

They have also led and co-led Indigenous art criticism residencies and workshops with Forge Project near Hudson, New York, Taqsiqtuut Indigenous Research-Creation Lab at University of Victoria, the Beaux-Arts in Paris, the École Supérieure d’Art d’Avignon and the Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts.

As an artist, Eshrāghi has presented major works at Tate Modern, Cinéma Moderne, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Galerie de l’Université de Montréal, and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, among others.

They have notably exhibited as part of the biennials, The National 4: Australian Art Now (2023), MOMENTA Biennale de l’image: Sensing Nature (2021), 22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN (2020), and Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber (2019).

Their work is held in the Royal Bank of Canada (Warrang/Tsi Tkaró:nto) and Fonds régional d’art contemporain (Carquefou/Nantes) collections, and in private collections in Canada, Australia, and Norfolk Island.

Eshrāghi holds a postdoctoral fellowship from Concordia University, Montreal, a PhD in Curatorial Practice from Monash University, and a Graduate Certificate in Indigenous Arts Management from the University of Melbourne.

They serve as Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, member of the Governance Circle for Heather Igloliorte’s Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonial and Transformational Indigenous Art Practices and the Taqsiqtuut Indigenous Research-Creation Lab at the University of Victoria, member of the national curatorial advisory for the 2026 Toronto Biennial of Art, and member of the Conseil des arts de Montréal’s Indigenous Arts Committee.