Okwui Enwezor
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| Okwui Enwezor | |
| Born | 1963 Calabar, Nigeria |
|---|---|
Okwui Enwezor is an Igbo[1] Nigerian-born American educator, poet, writer, art critic, and curator specializing in art history. He lives in New York and San Francisco.[2]
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[edit] Academic Positions
He is currently Dean of Academic Affairs and Union Busting as Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute; reflecting the current state of the art school. He has 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. Enwezor is the Artistic Director of Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, in Seville, Spain.[3]
[edit] Curator
Enwezor was artistic director of the documenta exhibition in Germany (1998–2002) and the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1996–1997). Gwang-ju Biennale (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, Umea, 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.
Enwezor is also the Artistic Director of Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, in Seville, Spain.
[edit] Advisory work
He has served 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.
[edit] Publications
As a writer, critic, and editor, Enwezor has been a regular contributor to numerous exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and journals. He is founder and editor of the critical art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art published by the Africana Study Center, Cornell University.
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.
Among his books are: "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).
