Verena Formanek studied at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, from which she graduated with an M.A. (with distinction). In 1989 she joined the MAK-Austrian Museum Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, as Curator of Design and Exhibitions. She installed the permanent collection in contexts designed by international artists, such as Barbara Bloom, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, and Heimo Zoberning, and in 1993 she became Deputy Director under Peter Noever. Her next post was at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, which opened in 1997 in a new building by Renzo Piano. She was Deputy Artistic Director at the Fondation from 1996 to 2004 and worked closely with Ernst Beyeler. In 2002 she curated the Fondation’s Claude Monet exhibition, which featured Olafur Eliasson’s first site-specific installation. From 2006 to 2009 she was Head of Collections at the design museum—the Museum für Gestaltung—in Zurich. She has held numerous research and teaching posts, in Basel, Zurich, and Linz, and has published widely, most recently Every Thing Design (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2009), a volume designed by Irma Boom. She worked many years with Helmut Lang and compiled the archive which is today in the MAK, Vienna. In 2010 she joined the culture department of TDIC as Senior Project Manager for Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by architect Frank Gehry and to open soon, and worked in the same capacity in the museum department of TCA till 2016. Most recently she curated #mebody in the Domaine Boisbuchet, France. Currently she's curating with Munira Al Sayegh and the Dirwaza Lab, Abu Dhabi, the next exhibition Evaporating Suns, Contemporary myths from the Arabian Gulf for KBH.G, Kulturstiftung Basle H. Geiger, which will open in Mai 2023. Verena Formanek is based in Vienna, and Zurich.