Jonathan Watkins is an English curator, and is currently Director of Ikon Gallery in Birmingham.
Watkins emigrated to Australia with his family in 1969 and studied Philosophy and History of Art at the University of Sydney, where he later taught. He was curator of the Chisenhale Gallery in London during which period this relatively small local gallery became an internationally known centre of excellence – many of the Artists shown at that time later going on to major acclaim including a number of Turner Prize winners, Watkins later moved to the Serpentine Gallery from 1995 to 1997 and worked in a freelance capacity as curator of the Biennale of Sydney in 1998.
In 1999 he was appointed to his current role as Director of the Ikon Gallery, and has since worked as a guest curator at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, the Venice Biennale, the Hayward Gallery and Tate in London. He recently unveiled plans for a new museum of modern art in Birmingham.