Modern Forms
Modern Forms is a private art collection and curatorial platform.
It was founded in 2016 by collector Hussam Otaibi and Nick became its founding Curator.
Modern Forms supports outstanding contemporary art through a program of acquisitions, donations and collaborations with artists and art institutions.
The core of the collection comprises key works by emerging and mid-career artists including; Samara Scott, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Charles Harlan, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Leandro Feal, Petra Cortright, Jordy Kerwick, Lakwena Hannah Perry, Johanna Unzueta, Ali Emir Tapan, Sol Calero, Emma Hart, Gabriele Beveridge and Zak Ove.
Modern Forms’ curatorial and critical activities are activated through its online program, institutional collaborations and independent interventions
Modern Forms donated Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh’s major work The Way Earthly Things Are Going to Tate Collection and supported its display at Tate Modern. Similarly we donated Oliver Laric’s video Betweeness to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and supported its exhibition. The Serpentine x Modern Forms Sculpture Commission facilitated the creation and display of Sophia Al-Maria’s first public artwork. Modern Forms also supported the final stage of the installation of the Ghana Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale and sponsored Ghana’s party.
Modern Forms' talks program, over the years, has featured; Marguerite Humeau, Jake Chapman, Professor Wendy Wheeler, Stefanie Hessler, Marina Warner, Marc Davis, Mark Cousins and Carolina Mazzolari amongst others.
Modern Forms’ philanthropic program engages with social, cultural and environmental issues.
In collaboration with staff and students at Central Saint Martins, Modern Forms founded Credit, a project engaging with London’s emerging art scene through academic, creative and structural interventions. It launched Credit X, the first dedicated map and database of emerging art spaces in London.
In a gesture of support for the staff of the NHS during the pandemic, Modern Forms, in collaboration with artist Shezad Dawood and the charity Vital Arts, launched #100NHSRooms. The initiative sourced one hundred new art works, generously donated by artists that were installed across the five hospitals of NHS Barts Trust in East London.
Recently Modern Forms began a program of art sales to support AmazoniAlerta an NGO raising money to support the legal defence of Indigenous lands in the Amazon rainforest.