“Turquoise Mountain: Artists Transforming Afghanistan” at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Asian Art, 2016

In 2016, Thomas curated the exhibition “Turquoise Mountain: Artists Transforming Afghanistan” at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museums of Asian Art in Washington D.C. (New York Times article about the exhibition here). The exhibition was created with several of Afghanistan’s greatest living artisans (including Abdul Matin Malikzada and Saeeda Etebari) and was visited by over 400,000 visitors during its extended eighteen-month run.

In 2018, he curated the Smithsonian Institution’s digital exhibition “The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads”, a multidisciplinary initiative created in collaboration with NYU which explored the life, times and legacy of this extraordinary Central Asian culture. 

He has also helped organise multiple exhibitions about historic and contemporary arts in Afghanistan, including at the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha and Leighton House Museum in London (2013, a catalogue of the show can be found here), the Young V&A in London (2015), and at the Milan Design Triennale, in collaboration with Wallpaper* magazine (2016).

His latest exhibition project is Lightroom, which launched in London in February 2023 with an exhibition created in collaboration with David Hockney (New York Times piece on the project here and non-paywall review from the Independent UK here)