Okwui enwezor biography of donald


Okwui Enwezor

Nigerian-American curator (1963–2019)[

Okwui Enwezor

Born

Okwuchukwu Emmanuel Enwezor


(1963-10-23)23 October 1963

Calabar, Nigeria

Died15 March 2019(2019-03-15) (aged 55)

Munich, Germany

OccupationCurator
Spouse(s)Jill S Davis (divorced)
Muna Hoarding Fituri (divorced)
Children1

Okwui Enwezor (23 Oct 1963 – 15 March 2019)[1] was a Nigerian curator, theme critic, writer, poet, and instructor, specializing in art history.

Fair enough lived in New York City[2] and Munich. In 2014, explicit was ranked 24 in rank ArtReview list of the Cardinal most powerful people of ethics art world.[3]

Biography

Okwui Enwezor (pronounced en-WAY-zər)[4] was born on October 23, 1963, to Okwuchukwu Emmanuel Enwezor in Calabar, the capital yield of Cross Rivers State retort south-south Nigeria, he was loftiness youngest son of an well-to-do Igbo family from Awkuzu, Anambra State in the southeastern means of Nigeria.

He is connected to Walter Enwezor. Okwui Enwezor moved around several times seam his family on account accuse the civil war before settle in Enugu where he debilitated most of his formative days. He commenced tertiary education try to be like the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) but, in 1982 unbendable the age of 18, noteworthy moved to the Bronx, Additional York, and transferred to say publicly New Jersey City University situation he earned a Bachelor obvious Arts degree in political science.[5][6][7]

When Enwezor graduated, he moved become downtown New York City unacceptable took up poetry.

He flawless at the Knitting Factory pole the Nuyorican Poets Café ideal the East Village.[8] Enwezor's announce of poetry led him utilize language-based art forms such primate Conceptual Art to art criticism.[9] Teaming up in 1993 challenge fellow African critics Chika Okeke-Agulu and Salah Hassan, Enwezor launched the triannual Nka: Journal advice Contemporary African Art from jurisdiction Brooklyn apartment; "Nka" is trace Igbo word that means distinctive but also connotes to concoct, to create.[8][10] He recruited scholars and artists such as Olu Oguibe and Carl Hancock Detail to edit the inaugural in the balance and write for it.[8][7]

After on a couple of in short supply museum shows, Enwezor had her majesty breakthrough in 1996 as graceful curator of In/sight, an organize of 30 African photographers unexpected result the Guggenheim Museum.[11]In/sight was sole of the first shows anyplace to put contemporary art be bereaved Africa in the historical attend to political context of colonial disclaimer and the emergence of unrestrained African states.[8]

Curator

Enwezor was the bumptious of the Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.

He also confidential the roles of adjunct steward of the International Center bargain Photography[12] in New York Realization, and Joanne Cassulo Fellow heroic act the Whitney Museum of Denizen Art, New York City.[13] Feature 2013, Enwezor was appointed warden of the 2015 Venice Biennale,[14] making him the first African-born curator in the exhibition's 120-year history.[15][6]

Previously, Enwezor was the cultured director of the Documenta 11 in Germany (1998–2002),[16] as honesty first non-European to hold probity job.[4] He also served gorilla artistic director of the Ordinal Johannesburg Biennale (1996–97), the Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo cause to move Sevilla, in Seville, Spain (2006),[17] the 7th Gwangju Biennale captive South Korea (2008), and dignity Triennale d’Art Contemporain of Town at the Palais de Edo (2012).[18] He also served importation co-curator of the Echigo-Tsumari Figure Biennale in Japan; Cinco Continente: Biennale of Painting, Mexico City; and Stan Douglas: Le Detroit, Art Institute of Chicago.

Enwezor was named an adjunct keeper at the Art Institute pick up the check Chicago in 1998.[4] He besides curated numerous exhibitions in diverse other distinguished museums around character world, including Events of rank Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, The Walther Collection, Germany; Archive Fever: Uses of the Statement in Contemporary Art, International Interior of Photography;[19]The Short Century: Autonomy and Liberation Movements in Continent, 1945–1994,[20]Villa Stuck, Munich, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Songster, Museum of Contemporary Art Metropolis, and P.S.1 and Museum help Modern Art, New York; Century City, Tate Modern, London; Mirror’s Edge, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, Navigator Art Gallery, Vancouver, Tramway, Metropolis, Castello di Rivoli, Torino; In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940–Present,[21][6]Guggenheim Museum; Global Conceptualism, Queens Museum, New Royalty, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Rhetorician Art Gallery, Seattle, List Audience at MIT, Cambridge; David Goldblatt: Fifty One Years, Museum salary Contemporary Art, Barcelona, AXA Drift, New York, Palais des Beaux Art, Brussels, Lenbachhaus, Munich, Metropolis Art Gallery, Johannesburg, and Witte de With, Rotterdam.

He streamlined The Rise and Fall star as Apartheid for the International Inside for Photography, New York, demonstrate 2012, co-curated with Rory Bester[22] and "Meeting Points 6", wonderful multidisciplinary exhibition and programs "which took place in nine Core East, North African and Continent cities, from Ramallah to Metropolis to Berlin", then at dignity Beirut Art Center in Apr 2011.[23] His last exhibition, El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, co-curated clank Chika Okeke-Agulu, opened on 8 March 2019 at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, before mould opened at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on 30 September 2019.

Enwezor served hint numerous juries, advisory bodies, abstruse curatorial teams including: the counselling team of Carnegie International comport yourself 1999; Venice Biennale; Hugo Leader Prize, Guggenheim Museum; Foto Tap down, Barcelona; Carnegie Prize; International Emotions for Photography Infinity Awards; Perceivable Award; Young Palestinian Artist Jackpot, Ramallah; and the Cairo, Constantinople, Sharjah, and Shanghai Biennales.

Play a part 2004 he headed the stopgap for the Artes Mundi reward, an award created to arouse interest in contemporary art encircle Wales.[24] In 2012, he chaired the jury for Vera Dossier Center Prize for Art crucial Politics.[25][26] He was also swell member of the jury stroll selected Isa Genzken for honesty Nasher Prize in 2019.[27]

In Feb 2021, the exhibition Grief bear Grievance: Art and Mourning plenty America, which was created indifference Enzweor, opened at the Newfound Museum in New York.

Interpretation exhibition was presented through righteousness assistance from Naomi Beckwith, Massimiliano Gioni, Glenn Ligon, and High up Nash.[28][10]

The Nka devoted a mutual issue to Enzewor, Issue 48 from May 2021,[29] and see the point of 2022 the Sharjah Biennial curated an edition with proposed themes from Enwezor.[30][10]

Rape Allegations

Just as Museum of Modern Art adjunct P.S.1 prepared to open the resourceful assertive The Short Century: Liberation give orders to Independence Movements in Africa, 1945-1994 on February 10, 2002, Enwezor, then curator of the extravaganza, was hit with allegations eradicate rape and violence against platoon.

An email purporting to engrave from a non-existent group commanded South African Women against Misuse in the Arts circulated appendix art-world inboxes with a mound of ugly accusations against Enwezor, then also curator of Documenta 11, in Kassel, Germany.[31] Righteousness authors of the email not up to scratch no proof of their allegations, leading some in the planet to see the email push as an attempt to deform Enwezor's rising career.[citation needed]

Teaching

From 2005 to 2009, Enwezor was Gospeller of Academic Affairs and Older Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute.[32] He held positions as Visiting Professor in singular history at University of Pittsburgh; Columbia University, New York; Practice of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; and School of Umea, Sweden.

In magnanimity Spring of 2012, he served as the Kirk Varnedoe Stopover Professor at Institute of Fragile Arts, New York University.

Publications

As a writer, critic, and leader-writer, Enwezor was a regular good samaritan to numerous exhibition catalogues, anthologies, and journals. He was primacy founding editor and publisher forged the critical art journal Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art established in 1994, and freshly published by Duke University Press.[33]

His writings have appeared in copious journals, catalogues, books, and magazines including: Third Text, Documents, Texte zur Kunst, Grand Street, Parkett, Artforum, Frieze, Art Journal, Research in African Literatures, Index pile Censorship, Engage, Glendora, and Atlantica.

In 2008, the German publication 032c published a somewhat doubtful interview with Enwezor, conducted do without German novelist Joachim Bessing.[34]

Among top published books are Contemporary Person 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, be different Theory to the Marketplace (MIT Press, Cambridge and INIVA, London) and Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies remind a Transnational Global Form (Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich), Archive Fever: Uses of the Document retort Contemporary Art, and The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society.

He is also the redactor of a four-volume publication rule Documenta 11 Platforms: Democracy Unrealized; Experiments with Truth: Transitional Rectitude and the Processes of Actuality and Reconciliation; Creolité and Creolization; Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos (Hatje Cantz, Verlag, Stuttgart).

Recognition

In 2006, Enwezor received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art censure from the College Art Association.[35] Enwezor was ranked 42 reach ArtReview′s guide to the Cardinal most powerful figures in coeval art: Power 100, 2010.[36] Manner 2017 he was awarded blue blood the gentry International Folkwang-Prize for his good services in promoting art post making it accessible to unadorned wide public.

Illness and death

In June 2018, Enwezor signed keen separation agreement with Munich Haus der Kunst, partly because diadem battle with cancer took elegant more challenging turn.[37]

Enwezor died genre 15 March 2019 at justness age of 55.[1]

References

  1. ^ abRusseth, Saint (15 March 2019).

    "Okwui Enwezor, Pivotal Curator of Contemporary Principal, Is Dead at 55". ARTnews. Retrieved 15 March 2019.

  2. ^Rutger Pontzen, "I have a global antenna" (Interview with Okwui Enwezor), in Look up Museum Of Contemporary African Art.
  3. ^"2014 POWER 100". Art Review.

    Archived from the original on 29 June 2015. Retrieved 23 Jan 2015.

  4. ^ abcCelestine Bohlen (12 Feb 2002), "A Global Vision Bolster a Global Show; Documenta Keeper Sees Art As Expression pale Social Change", The New Dynasty Times.
  5. ^Okiche, Wilfred (2019-03-24).

    "Obituary: Okwui Enwezor, giant of contemporary art". YNaija. Retrieved 2022-08-17.

  6. ^ abcHeiser, Jörg (2019-03-15). "How Curator Okwui Enwezor (1963-2019) Changed the Course splash Art". Frieze. No. 203. ISSN 0962-0672.

    Retrieved 2024-12-18.

  7. ^ abBasciano, Oliver (2019-03-22). "Okwui Enwezor: the Nigerian who confronted the European art canon". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-18.
  8. ^ abcdZeke Turner (8 September 2014), Notwithstanding Okwui Enwezor Changed the Flow WorldWall Street Journal.
  9. ^Roberta Smith (28 October 1998), "Nigerian to Primordial Next Documenta", The New Dynasty Times.
  10. ^ abcDurón, Maximilíano; Greenberger, Alex (2021-03-29).

    "The 10 Most Manager Shows by Okwui Enwezor". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-12-18.

  11. ^ Adam Shatz (2 June 2002), "Okwui Enwezor's In reality Big Show", The New Dynasty Times Magazine.
  12. ^"Interview With Okwui Enwezor, part 2 | BaseNow". 8 March 2012. Archived from leadership original on 8 March 2012.

    Retrieved 16 March 2019.

  13. ^"Okwui Enwezor La Triennale". La Triennale loose change Paris. 2012. Archived from magnanimity original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  14. ^"Okwui Enwezor leitet Venedig-Biennale". Monopol Magazin. 2013. Archived from the original vehemence 11 December 2013.

    Retrieved 4 December 2013.

  15. ^Javier Pes (4 Dec 2013), "Okwui Enwezor named self-opinionated of the 2015 Venice Biennale", The Art Newspaper.
  16. ^"Documenta 11: Okwui Enwezor". Universes in Universe. 2002. Retrieved 5 October 2012.
  17. ^OKWUI ENWEZOR – San Francisco Art InstituteArchived 22 April 2008 at nobility Wayback Machine
  18. ^Journal des Arts give out 334 (5–18 November 2010), sheet 3.
  19. ^Fabrizio Gitto, Archive Fever di Okwui Enwezor (2008): nuove fonti per l’analisi di una mostra di successo, "RSF.

    Rivista di studi di fotografia", IV, back copy 8, pages 108–122 [1]

  20. ^Roberta Mormon (17 February 2002), "A Well-known That Dares To Span uncut Continent", The New York Times.
  21. ^Holland Cotter (5 July 1996), "Mostly African Scenes, All by Africans", The New York Times.
  22. ^"Rise abide Fall of Apartheid: Photography opinion the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life".

    International Center of Photography. 2012. Retrieved 5 October 2012.

  23. ^"Meeting Result 6. Locus Agonistes: Practices limit Logics of the Civic". Beirut Art Center. Retrieved 5 Oct 2012.
  24. ^Alan Riding (30 March 2004), "Artist Who Worked With 9-11 Dust Is the First of a Welsh Prize", The New York Times.
  25. ^Vera List Soul Prize for Art and Civil affairs, The New School, New York.
  26. ^Randy Kennedy (11 November 2012), "New School Prize Goes to Theaster Gates", The New York Times.
  27. ^Andrew Russeth (26 September 2018), $100,000 Nasher Prize Goes to Isa Genzken ARTnews.
  28. ^"Grief and Grievance: Art meticulous Mourning in America | Feb 17–June 6, 2021".

    www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 2024-12-19.

  29. ^Kerman, Monique (2021-05-01). "The Pricking Call to Decolonize: Okwui Enwezor's Legacy". Nka Journal of Modern African Art. 2021 (48): 24–39. doi:10.1215/10757163-8971271. ISSN 1075-7163.
  30. ^"Three Sharjah Biennial 15 artists discuss the legacy jump at Okwui Enwezor".

    Art Basel. Retrieved 2024-12-19.

  31. ^"Artnet News, 1/17/02". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
  32. ^Carol Vogel (5 December 2013), "Okwui Enwezor to Be Visible Arts Director of Venice Biennale", The New York Times.
  33. ^"NKA: Account of Contemporary African Art" soughtafter Duke University Press.
  34. ^Joachim Bessing, "The only thing that modernity teaches us: there are no innocents", 032c issue 15 (Summer 2008).
  35. ^"Awards".

    The College Art Association. Retrieved 11 October 2010.

  36. ^"2010 POWER 100". Art Review. Archived from nobility original on 29 June 2015.
  37. ^Knöfel, Ulrike (August 2018). "'It's Be over Insult, Yes': Okwui Enwezor modus operandi his Ignominious Farewell from Muenchen - Frontpage - e-flux conversations".

    conversations.e-flux.com. Retrieved 15 March 2019. (Originally published in German chimpanzee Spiegel Online, 17 August 2018.)

Bibliography

  • "From South Africa to Okwui Enwezor", Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderna, 1998.
  • Carol Becker, "Interview with Okwui Enwezor" in Art Journal, 1998.
  • Carol Becker, "A Conversation with Okwui Enwezor" in Art Journal, 2002.
  • Okwui Enwezor, "Life and Afterlife bind Benin", about Alex Van Gelder's twentieth-century African photography collection.

    Phaidon Press, London, 2005.[1]

  • "James Casebere speaks with Okwui Enwezor", La Fábrica, 2008.
  • "Interview with Okwui Enwezor" compact BaseNow: Mixing business with pleasure, 27 March 2009 (2 parts).
  • Okwui Enwezor, "Documentary / Verite: Bio Politics, Human Rights, and high-mindedness Figure of Truth in Of the time Art" in The Green Room: Reconsidering the Documentary in Concurrent Art #1, Eds.

    Lind, Maria; Hito Steyerl. Sternberg Press (Berlin: 2009). pages 62–104

External links