Umair Badheeu is an artist, curator, and freediver. 

His two-decade long career in the arts saw him involved in a range of disciplines from painting + photography to  curating and conservation. 

In 2009, he curated 350 photographs from over 5,000 for climate change advocate 350.org’s “Postcards from the Frontline,” exhibition in Male, Maldives.

And in 2013, Umair co-curated “War Games: David Levinthal” at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. He has also exhibited work in Mexico.

Between 2014 and 2016, Umair was Curator + Culture and Heritage Manager at Loama Resort Maldives in Maamigili. There, he acquired and conserved a collection for Loama Museum and laid the museum’s groundworks and procedures. He also oversaw the excavation of an 800-year-old bathing tank and was instrumental in relocating a traditional wooden house.

Later, in 2021, Umair curated an outdoor museum and the gallery at The Dutch Onion – a museum in Cora Cora Maldives. He curated the museum’s opening exhibition “Confluence of Cultures: Shaping an archipelago.” At Cora Cora.