Despoina Tzanou is an independent curator, writer and researcher based in Athens, GR and Braga, PT.

She holds an MA in Curating from the London Metropolitan University in partnership with the Whitechapel Gallery (2017); and a BA in Theory and History of Art from the Athens School of Fine Arts (2015).

In 2022/2023, Tzanou was awarded the ARTWORKS Curatorial Fellowship by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Athens.

From 2019-2024 she served as Director & Curator at Duarte Sequeira Gallery, where she led curatorial and artist-residency programming, shaped the gallery's vision, and oversaw its expansion to Seoul in 2021 and London in 2024. She was a founding member of DOW Curatorial Collective in London (2016-2018), and has collaborated with various public art institutions, including Forum Arte Institution (Braga), as well as Cell Projects Space and Whitechapel Gallery (London).

Her curatorial practice and writing involve deconstructing contemporary events and symbols of oppressive systems, weaving together feminist studies, contemporary theory, psychology, and mythology. With a belief in collaboration and care as means to nurture human connections and facilitate discussions that encourage intellectual exchange and artistic experimentation, she aims to challenge dominant narratives and disrupt dysfunctional power structures.

She regularly contributes writing to publications and exhibition catalogues. Her projects have been featured in Mousse, frieze, émergent, Artsy, Flash Art, El Pais, Artsy, CURA , Art Viewer, KUBA Paris, Anniversary, Umbigo, Publico, Time Out , and The Art Newspaper, among others.