May Alqaydi was born in 1994 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where she currently lives and works in the curatorial team at Sharjah Art Foundation. She holds an MRes Arts degree in Exhibition Studies from Central Saint MarAns, University of the Arts London. Her master’s research explored Middle Eastern feminism and traced Western representations and definitions of the veil in contemporary exhibition spaces. She completed two summer courses at Chelsea College of Art, London Atled CuraAng Contemporary Art and ExhibiAon Design and Delivery in 2018, and an Arts Management course at Central Saint MarAns, London in 2023. Alqaydi also holds an undergraduate degree in Visual CommunicaAon with Photography minor from the American University of Sharjah.
In 2018, she presented her research titled: ‘There weren’t boundaries‘ in collaboration with Marketa Jonasova at Tate Modern, London. The research was presented as a part of Central Saint Martens – Tate Exchange Lecture Series and in collaboration with UAE Pavilion in 57th Venice Biennale. It discussed the studies of the Emirati pioneer of conceptual art, Hassan Sharif, at Byam Shaw School of Art in the early 1980s and focused on his early performance art. She also received an opportunity to a\end The idea of the Global Museum conference in
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums), Berlin, Germany. Alqaydi worked closely with international and regional artists and curators during her work in the curatorial team at Sharjah Art Foundation. Among the exhibitions she worked on are Sharjah Biennial 15, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (2023); Pop South Asia: Explpration Pop South Asia: Artistic Explorations in the Popular (2022), curated by Iftikhar Dadi and Roobina Karode; Khalil Rabah: What is not, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (2022); Rayyane Tabet: Exquisite Corpse, curated by Ryan Inouye (2021); Tarek Atoui: Cycles in 11, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (2020);
March Project, organized by Sharjah Art Foundation (2019); Andrew Stahl: 1976-Today; curated by Hoor Al Qasimi (2019) and Sharjah Biennial 14 curated by Zoe Bu\, Omar Kholeif and Claire Tancons (2019). Alongside her interest in curatorial studies and research, Alqaydi experiments with making fine art photography using analogue processes in her private darkroom. She a\empts to bridge the gap between artists and curators, and investigates the idea of artists as curators and vice versa.