Ian White was perhaps best known during his lifetime as an innovative, and often radical, curator of the moving image. He curated hundreds of events, ranging from salon-style screenings to film seasons at major museums and festivals, and worked closely with many of the artists he showed, often in ways which continued over many years.

White had several long-standing institutional curating positions. He spent five formative years as the programmer and manager of The Horse Hospital, a vibrant alternative arts venue in central London (1995-2000), where many of the events blurred the distinctions between curating and performing. Subsequently he became the curator of the cinema at the Lux Centre in Hoxton Square (2000-1), until its sudden closure; after the organisation was relaunched as LUX the following year, White continued to curate projects for them, including the gallery exhibition Invisible Mend (2007).

White also became the Adjunct Film Curator of Whitechapel Gallery, where he was to work for a decade (2001-11), curating programmes with participants including James Benning, Cinenova, Adam Curtis, Alfred Leslie, Sharon Lockhart, Anthony McCall, Yvonne Rainer, Hito Steyerl and many others.

Other important working relationships included the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, for whom he produced several significant programmes, and – after he had relocated to Berlin – Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art, particularly in relation to their project The Living Archive.

White also curated a number of gallery exhibitions, including solo exhibitions of Klaus Weber (Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, 2005) and Emily Wardill (de Appel, Amsterdam, 2010). He also curated the video section of the travelling exhibition The Secret Public: The last days of the British Underground, 1978-1988 (2006-7).

The estate is currently researching White’s curatorial work in order to produce a more complete list. For now, you can read about several key projects from throughout his career below.