Hans Ulrich Obrist is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Prior to this, he was a curator at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since his first show World Soup (The Kitchen Show) in 1991, he has curated more than 300 shows. His recent publications include Ways of Curating, The Age of Earthquakes, Lives of the Artists, Lives of Architects, Mondialité, Somewhere Totally Else, and The Athens Dialogues.

"Given his knowledge, you might expect an encounter with this curator to be daunting. . . . Now, however, as Obrist publishes his latest book, Life in Progress, we get the chance to meet him on less frenetically intellectual terms. . . . It invites us to discover the person behind the polymath."--The Times Magazine

"Obrist, who currently leads London's Serpentine Galleries, helped redefine his profession, and his latest book posits that curators remain essential because they are the great people connectors of the art world."--Art in America

"Invigorating . . . [Obrist] writes persuasively of his passion for connecting to the world through art and his desire to enable others to do the same. . . . Readers will be inspired."--Publishers Weekly

"Much of the charm of the book is in [Obrist's] first encounters with artists. . . . The memoir partly doubles as an elegy for an analogue art world of letters, postcards and serendipitous encounters on the street."--Frieze

"To understand Obrist, you have to go back to [his upbringing in] Weinfelden."--Financial Times

"Hans Ulrich Obrist is one of the most famous guides to the world of contemporary art. In his new memoir, he shows the way."--Prospect

"Life in Progress explor[es] how [Obrist's] early life and a near-death experience in childhood fuelled an insatiable appetite for meeting artists and staging shows, from his own kitchen to world-class institutions."--AnOther

"Throughout the short and succinct book, Obrist's love of knowledge and forming connections is striking. . . . [Life in Progress] is a who's who of the art world."--Wallpaper

"[An] unconventional and entertaining memoir by [a] man often credited as the inventor of modern curation."--Irish Times

"A candid recounting of [Obrist's] eventful career . . . [and] a vivid look into the art world."-- Kirkus Reviews

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)

Pub date: 2026-04-14

Length: 160 pages