Documenta11: Okwui Enwezor, Biography

Okwui Enwezor
Biography

Curator, critic, poet
1963		Born in Kalaba, Nigeria, a small city on the border to Cameroon. Raised in Enugu, in eastern Nigeria.

1983		Moved to New York. Began studying political science at Jersey City State College

Currently (2002) lives in New York, Chicago, London and Kassel.

Projects / Curatorial Activities (selection)
1998 - 2002		Artistic Director of Documenta11, which takes place in Kassel, Germany, from 8 June - 15 September 2002

-		Adjunct Curator of Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago

2001 - 2002		The Short Centrury, Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945 - 1994. Munich, Berlin, Chicago, New York. Curator

2000		David Goldblatt, South African Photographer, Equitable Gallery, New York. Curator

1999		Mirror's Edge, BildMuseet in Umeå, Sweden, 21 November 1999 - 20 February 2000. Also in Vancouver, Turin, Glasgow, Copenhagen. Curator

1999		Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s, Queens Museum of Art, New York, 28 April - 29 August 1999. Walker Art Center, 19 December 1999 - 5 March 2000. Co-curator for Africa.

1998		Cinco Continentes y una Ciudad (Five Continents and a City), international painting exhibition in Mexico City, 26 November 1998 - 28 February 1999. Curator of the African selection.

1997		2nd Johannesburg Biennale , South Africa, 12 October 1997 - 18 January 1998. Artistic Director. (See the interview with Universes in Universe)

1996		In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 - Present, Guggenheim Museum, New York, May - September 1996. Co-curator and editor of the publication.

Further exhibitions:
-		Modern Life, Aljira Centre for Contemporary Art in conjunction with the Newark Museum.

-		New Visions: Six Contemporary African Artists, Zora Neale Hurston National Art Museum, Eatonville, Florida.

Publications (selection)

Enwezor has written extensively on contemporary African art and artists, as well as on American and international art.

Founding Publisher and Co-editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, a critical art journal co-published with the Africana Studies Centre at Cornell University, New York, founded in 1994.

Correspondent for Flash Art und aRude; consulting editor for Atlantica; writes regularly for Frieze, International Review of African-American Art, Third Text, Index on Censorship, Glendora Review, Africa World Review, African Profiles International, SIKSI.

Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace.
Edited by Olu Oguibe and Okwui Enwezor. Institute for International Visual Arts: INIVA, London, and MIT Press, 1999.

Lectures

Okwui Enwezor has given numerous lectures in museums and universities in the US, Mexico, Europe, and Africa, for example at »100 days - 100 guests«, during documenta X (Kassel), Ecole des Beaux Arts Superieur (Paris), Royal College of Art (London), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), National Arts Academy (Oslo), Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (Annandale on Hudson, New York), New York University (New York) and Temple University (Philadelphia).

Further Professional Activities

Member of numerous juries and committees, among others:


1999		International Advisory Committee of Carnegie International
1998		Jury for the Hugo Boss Prize at the Guggenheim Museum, New York

Enwezor is the recipient of the 1998 Peter Norton Family Foundation Curator's Grant.

(Biography compiled by Universes in Universe, according to information on the website of the Documenta11 and other sources)


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