Okwui Enwezor
Encyclopedia
Okwui Enwezor is an Igbo
Nigerian-born American curator
, art critic
, writer
, poet
, educator, and specializing in art history
. He lives in New York
.
in Nigeria
in 1963. In 1987, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political sciences at the New Jersey City University
. In January 2011, he was appointed Director, Haus der Kunst
, Munich
, Germany
.
He was artistic director of the second edition of the Johannesburg Biennale organised in South Africa
in 1997; this exhibition with the title Trade Routes gives him the first greatest visibility. He was artistic director of the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, in Seville, Spain. He is adjunct curator at the International Center for Photography, New York
.
He was Dean of Academic Affairs at San Francisco Art Institute
until fall 2009. He held positions as Visiting Professor
in art history
at University of Pittsburgh
; Columbia University
, New York; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and University of Umea
, Sweden
.
He is adjunct curator of the International Center of Photography in New York
, and Joanne Cassulo Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art
, New York
.
of the Documenta
11 exhibition in Germany
(1998–2002) and the 2nd Johannesburg
Biennale (1996–1997), the 7th Gwang-ju Biennale in South Korea
(2008). He has curated numerous exhibitions in some of the most distinguished museums around the world, including Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art
, International Center of Photography
; The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa
, 1945–1994, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
, Gropius Bau, Berlin
, Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago, and P.S.1 and Museum of Modern Art, New York
; Century City, Tate Modern
, London
; Mirror’s Edge, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Vancouver Art Gallery
, Vancouver
, Tramway, Glasgow
, Castello di Rivoli, Torino; In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940–Present, Guggenheim Museum
; Global Conceptualism
, Queens Museum, New York, Walker Art Center
, Minneapolis, Henry Art Gallery
, Seattle, List Gallery at MIT, Cambridge; David Goldblatt: Fifty One Years, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona
, AXA Gallery, New York, Palais des Beaux Art, Brussels
, Lenbach Haus, Munich, Johannesburg Art Gallery
, Johannesburg, Witte de With
, Rotterdam
; co-curator of Echigo-Tsumari Sculpture Biennale in Japan
; co-curator of Cinco Continente: Biennale of Painting, Mexico City
; Stan Douglas: Le Detroit, Art Institute of Chicago
.
He is currently organizing an exhibition, "The Rise and Fall of Apartheid" for the International Center for Photography, New York, and "Meeting Points 6", a multidisciplinary exhibition and programs "which will take place in nine Middle East, North African and European cities, from Ramallah to Tangier to Berlin, starting in Beirut in April 2011.". Enwezor was also recently appointed the Artistic Director of the 2012 Paris Triennial
Okwui Enwezor serves on numerous juries, advisory bodies, and curatorial teams including: the advisory team of Carnegie International
in 1999; Venice Biennale
; Hugo Boss Prize
, Guggenheim Museum; Foto Press, Barcelona; Carnegie Prize
; International Center for Photography Infinity Awards; Young Palestinian Artist Award, Ramallah; and the Cairo, Istanbul, Sharjah, and Shanghai Biennales.
Enwezor was ranked 42 in ArtReview's guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010.
His writings have appeared in numerous journals, catalogues, books, and magazines including: Third Text
, Documents, Texte zur Kunst, Grand Street
, Parkett
, Artforum
, Frieze
, Art Journal
, Research in African Literatures, Index on Censorship
, Engage, Glendora, and Atlantica
. In 2008, the German magazine 032c
published a somewhat controversial an interview with Enwezor, conducted by German novelist Joachim Bessing.
Among his books are Contemporary African Art Since 1980 (Bologna: Damiani, 2009) co-authored with Chika Okeke-Agulu, Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), Reading the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to the Marketplace (MIT Press
, Cambridge and INIVA, London) and Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of a Transnational Global Form (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich), Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art, and The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society. He is also the editor of a four volume publication of Documenta 11 Platforms: Democracy Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice
and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation; Creolité and Creolization; Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos (Hatje Cantz, Verlag, Stuttgart).
In 2006, Enwezor received the Frank Jewett Mather
Award for art criticism from the College Art Association
.
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
Nigerian-born American curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
, art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, educator, and specializing in art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
. He lives in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Biography
Okwui Enwezor was born in CalabarCalabar
Calabar is a city in Cross River State, southeastern Nigeria. The original name for Calabar was Atakpa, from the Jukun language....
in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
in 1963. In 1987, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in political sciences at the New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. It is a member of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities....
. In January 2011, he was appointed Director, Haus der Kunst
Haus der Kunst
The Haus der Kunst is an art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstrasse 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park.-History:...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
He was artistic director of the second edition of the Johannesburg Biennale organised in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in 1997; this exhibition with the title Trade Routes gives him the first greatest visibility. He was artistic director of the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, in Seville, Spain. He is adjunct curator at the International Center for Photography, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
He was Dean of Academic Affairs at San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
until fall 2009. He held positions as Visiting Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
in art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
at University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
; Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, New York; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and University of Umea
Umeå University
Umeå University is a university in Umeå in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.
He is adjunct curator of the International Center of Photography in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Joanne Cassulo Fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Curator
Enwezor is artistic directorArtistic director
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the organization's artistic direction. He or she is generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the organization is generally a non-profit organization...
of the Documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
11 exhibition in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1998–2002) and the 2nd Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
Biennale (1996–1997), the 7th Gwang-ju Biennale in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
(2008). He has curated numerous exhibitions in some of the most distinguished museums around the world, including Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
, International Center of Photography
International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography is a photography museum, school, and research center in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
; The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, 1945–1994, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Gropius Bau, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
Chicago, and P.S.1 and Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
; Century City, Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; Mirror’s Edge, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery
The Vancouver Art Gallery is the fifth-largest art gallery in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. It is located at 750 Hornby Street in Vancouver, British Columbia...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Tramway, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Castello di Rivoli, Torino; In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940–Present, Guggenheim Museum
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...
; Global Conceptualism
Conceptualism
Conceptualism is a philosophical theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between Nominalism and Realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies...
, Queens Museum, New York, Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
, Minneapolis, Henry Art Gallery
Henry Art Gallery
The Henry Art Gallery is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in 1927 and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The...
, Seattle, List Gallery at MIT, Cambridge; David Goldblatt: Fifty One Years, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, AXA Gallery, New York, Palais des Beaux Art, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Lenbach Haus, Munich, Johannesburg Art Gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
, Johannesburg, Witte de With
Witte Corneliszoon de With
Witte Corneliszoon de With was a famous Dutch naval officer of the 17th century.- Early life and childhood :...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
; co-curator of Echigo-Tsumari Sculpture Biennale in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
; co-curator of Cinco Continente: Biennale of Painting, Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
; Stan Douglas: Le Detroit, Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
.
He is currently organizing an exhibition, "The Rise and Fall of Apartheid" for the International Center for Photography, New York, and "Meeting Points 6", a multidisciplinary exhibition and programs "which will take place in nine Middle East, North African and European cities, from Ramallah to Tangier to Berlin, starting in Beirut in April 2011.". Enwezor was also recently appointed the Artistic Director of the 2012 Paris Triennial
Okwui Enwezor serves on numerous juries, advisory bodies, and curatorial teams including: the advisory team of Carnegie International
Carnegie International
The Carnegie International is the oldest North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established the International to educate and inspire the...
in 1999; Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
; Hugo Boss Prize
Hugo Boss Prize
The Hugo Boss Prize is awarded every other year to an artist working in any medium, anywhere in the world. Since its establishment in 1996, it has distinguished itself from other art awards because it has no restrictions on nationality or age...
, Guggenheim Museum; Foto Press, Barcelona; Carnegie Prize
Carnegie Prize
The Carnegie Prize is an international prize for artists, awarded by the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.The prize should not be confused with the Carnegie Medal, which is awarded for children's literature....
; International Center for Photography Infinity Awards; Young Palestinian Artist Award, Ramallah; and the Cairo, Istanbul, Sharjah, and Shanghai Biennales.
Enwezor was ranked 42 in ArtReview's guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010.
Publications
As a writer, critic, and editor, Enwezor has been a regular contributor to numerous exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and journals. He is founding editor and publisher of the critical art journal NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art established in 1994, and currently published by Duke University Press.His writings have appeared in numerous journals, catalogues, books, and magazines including: Third Text
Third Text
Third Text is a bimonthly academic journal on art in global context. After founder and editor Rasheed Araeen's earlier art magazine Black Phoenix, started in 1978, published only three issues, it was relaunched as a theoretical art journal in 1987...
, Documents, Texte zur Kunst, Grand Street
Grand Street
Grand Street was an American magazine which appeared from 1981 to 2004. It was described by the New York Times as "one of the most revered literary magazines of the postwar era."-Founding:...
, Parkett
Parkett
-Publication:Published three times per year in English and German by its publishing house in Zurich, Switzerland, with an additional editorial office in New York, Parkett has a circulation of 12,000 and is read by some 30,000 readers in 40 countries, one third of them in North...
, Artforum
Artforum
Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
, Frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
, Art Journal
Art Journal (CAA)
Art Journal, established in New York in 1941, is a publication of the College Art Association of America . As a peer-reviewed, professionally moderated scholarly journal, its concentrations include:...
, Research in African Literatures, Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship
Index on Censorship is a campaigning publishing organisation for freedom of expression, which produces an award-winning quarterly magazine of the same name from London. The present chief executive of Index on Censorship, since 2008, is the author, broadcaster and commentator John Kampfner, former...
, Engage, Glendora, and Atlantica
Atlantica
Atlantica is the name given to an ancient continent that formed during the Proterozoic about from various 2 Ga cratons located in what is now West Africa and eastern South America....
. In 2008, the German magazine 032c
032c
032c magazine is an English-language, bi-annual contemporary culture magazine that covers art, fashion, and politics. The magazine is published in Berlin....
published a somewhat controversial an interview with Enwezor, conducted by German novelist Joachim Bessing.
Among his books are Contemporary African Art Since 1980 (Bologna: Damiani, 2009) co-authored with Chika Okeke-Agulu, Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008), Reading the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to the Marketplace (MIT Press
MIT Press
The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, Cambridge and INIVA, London) and Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of a Transnational Global Form (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich), Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art, and The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society. He is also the editor of a four volume publication of Documenta 11 Platforms: Democracy Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice
Transitional justice
Transitional justice generally refers to a range of approaches that states may use to address past human rights violations and includes both judicial and non-judicial approaches. They include series of actions or policies and their resulting institutions, which may be enacted at a point of...
and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation; Creolité and Creolization; Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos (Hatje Cantz, Verlag, Stuttgart).
In 2006, Enwezor received the Frank Jewett Mather
Frank Jewett Mather
Frank Jewett Mather was an American art critic and professor.He was born at Deep River, Conn., and graduated from Williams College in 1889 and from Johns Hopkins in 1892: he studied also at Berlin and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris...
Award for art criticism from the College Art Association
College Art Association
The College Art Association of America is the principal professional association in the United States for practitioners and scholars of art, art history, and art criticism...
.