Education
She studied English and Fine Art at Exeter University before becoming an assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, under the tutelage of Sandy Nairne, who is a former director of the National Portrait Gallery.
She studied English and Fine Art at Exeter University before becoming an assistant curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, under the tutelage of Sandy Nairne, who is a former director of the National Portrait Gallery.
Blazwick was brought up in Blackheath, South East London. Her first exhibition was, Objects and Sculpture (1981), which included work by artists Bill Woodrow, Richard Deacon, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley. From 1984 to 1986, Blazwick was Director of Associated Independent Recording Gallery, London.
From 1986 to 1993, she was Director of Exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, where she curated exhibitions of modern and contemporary art
From 1993 to 1997, Blazwick worked as an independent curator for museums and major public arts projects in Europe and Japan, devising surveys of contemporary artists and commissioning new works of art Since 2001, Blazwick has been the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
She is series editor of Whitechapel Gallery/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology Documents of Contemporary Artist Blazwick is Chair of the Cultural Strategy Group at London"s City Hall, appointed by Mayor Boris Johnson.
Blazwick was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for services to art in the 2008 New Year Honours.
She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Art (2004) and has received Honorary Doctorates from Plymouth University (2006), the London Metropolitan University (2007), Goldsmiths College (2010), the University of the Arts (2011) and Middlesex University.
She is chair of the MaxMara Art Prize for Women and a standing member of the jury for Film London"s Jarman Award. And a member of the Fourth Plinth Committee.