I am an independent curator, scholar, and occasional florist of Uvwie heritage. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne and raised in Lagos, I regularly navigate between West Africa and the UK. My engagement with global modern and contemporary art is inherently interdisciplinary, with a particular focus on performance art. For me, curating exhibitions and writing about art are deeply interconnected practices, both shaping meaningful narratives around artists and their work. Whether through exhibition-making or critical writing, I create spaces for audiences—viewers in the gallery or readers on the page—to encounter and experience art. At the core of my approach is a close dialogue with living artists, fostering an intimate engagement with artistic processes and works in flux. This proximity to makers allows me to consider art in a state of becoming, revealing its evolving and transformative nature.
I hold a doctorate in Curating Art and Science: New Methods and Sites of Production and Display from a partnership between Royal Holloway, the University of London and Arts Catalyst funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC). I also have an MA in Curating Contemporary Art (Inspire) from the Royal College of Art, London, funded by Arts Council England (ACE), and a BA (Hons) in Material Culture, Architecture and Museum Studies from the University of Leeds. Between 2022 and 2024, I was awarded an Early Career Fellowship from the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art as part of their inaugural New Narratives awards scheme, which supports students and researchers from diverse backgrounds to encourage new perspectives on British art and visual culture across all periods. This award led to my directorial debut, The Enduring Legacy of Ladi Kwali (2024), which explores the legacy of pioneering Nigerian ceramist Ladi Dosei Kwali (1925-1984) through newly recorded interviews with her family and community members in Northern Nigeria.
My most recent curated exhibition, Catch the Invisible, brought together artists from Brazil, West Africa, and the African diaspora who are interested in material and immaterial explorations that offer innovative approaches to visual storytelling. The exhibition featured artists Ana Beatriz Almeida, Jelili Atiku, Elolo Bosoka, Serigne Mbaye Camara, Ibiye Camp, Tessi Kodjovi, Marica Kure, Alberto Pitta, A. Sika, and Yadichinma Ukoha-Kalu, in collaboration with Aissa Dione of Galerie Atiss Dakar. You can visit my work page for information on my most recent projects and writings.
In 2023, I curated a two-part micro-survey of contemporary painting titled PUBLIC PRIVATE at Pond Society, Shanghai (June 10–July 20 and July 29–September 7, 2023). The exhibition showcased twelve contemporary painters: Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Hayley Barker, Dominic Chambers, Hyegyeong Choi, Anthony Cudahy, Ulala Imai, Sarah Lee, Jonny Negron, GaHee Park, Sarah Slappey, Caroline Walker, and Michaela Yearwood-Dan. ArtReview named PUBLIC PRIVATE a top exhibition pick for June 2023, and it was featured in Art Basel Stories.
In 2022, I curated Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics, and Contemporary Art, an exhibition that surveyed how ceramics have been disrupted, questioned, and reimagined by Black women over the last seventy years, beginning with the seminal Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali. The exhibition featured over 100 recent and new artworks by a diverse group of 17 modern and contemporary artists working with clay and ceramics, including Ladi Kwali, Halima Audu, Asibe Ido, Magdalene Odundo, Bisila Noha, Phoebe Collings-James, Shawanda Corbett, Vivian Chinasa Ezhuga, Jade Montserrat and Julia Phillips.
The critically acclaimed exhibition was on view at Two Temple Place, London (29 January – 24 April 2022) and later toured to York Art Gallery (24 June – 18 September 2022). It received reviews and features in publications such as The Financial Times, Wallpaper*, The Guardian, BBC Pidgin, The Black British List, Cultured, The White Pube, The Sunday Times Culture Show, The Art Newspaper, Time Out London, Africanah.org, Burlington Contemporary, Yorkshire Reporter, Studio International, The Voice, Ceramic Review, The Design Edit, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, The Journal of Modern Craft and Evening Standard.
In 2022, I also served as Deptford X, London’s longest-running visual arts festival that same year. London’s longest-running visual arts festival. In this role, I contributed to the organisation’s strategic direction, reporting to the director and board while overseeing all aspects of the organisation’s operations, including financial, HR, and artistic programs. I curated and delivered the 10-day festival, featuring eight new artists’ commissions by Ibiye Camp, collaborative duo Assia Ghendir and Puer Deorum, Nnena Kalu, Barbara Majek, Yeu-Lai Mo and Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck. The festival concluded with a community-led parade through Deptford High Street by renowned Nigerian performance and visual artist Jelili Atiku, alongside young people from the Borough of Lewisham, exploring themes of ecology, migration, trade, and local markets. Additionally, Deptford X Live introduced live music to the festival with Shakedown (Gin, Black Obsidian Sound System and Ash Walker) and Nzinga Soundz, DJ Aisha from Brazil, hosted by MC Mad X.
My previous curatorial and editorial roles include positions at Camden Art Centre (2021), MVRDV (2016-2018), Arts Catalyst (2013-2016), Etemad Gallery, Dubai (2011-2012) and MIMA Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (2009-2011).
In 2019, I travelled extensively across West Africa, visiting significant cities and off-the-beaten-path locations in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Benin, Ivory Coast, and Togo on a research trip funded by Arts Council England. I investigated activist-led, community-driven projects and artistic practices during this three-month exploration. My research has received support through awards and funding from several funding organisations, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council England, Decorative Art Society, The Art Fund, Paul Mellon for Studies in British Art, The British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.
I began writing about contemporary art on my blog, Artistes Only, between 2008 and 2012. This experience contributed to my development as an ‘accidental’ art critic. My writing on art, design, and architecture has appeared in various international publications, both online and in print. These include Artsy, Art Basel stories, Ceramic Monthly, The Art Newspaper, People’s Stories Project, DOMUS, PIN-UP Magazine, It’s Nice That, FT HTSI, Wallpaper*, Disegno Journal, Ocula Magazine, Bomb Magazine, World of Interiors, Apartmento, Bonhams Magazine, Boy.Brother.Friend, CNN Style, Frieze, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, SLEEK Mag, Leonardo Journal, X-TRA, Primary Paper, The Culture Trip, Hyperallergic, Metropolis M, ARTNews, Burlington Contemporary, Cultured, The Fashion and Race Database, Crafts Magazine and WePresent.
I have also written exhibition catalogue essays and critical texts for notable artists and institutions such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Tabita Rezaire, Rosana Paulino, Donald Rodney, Theaster Gates, Ndidi Dike, Phoebe Collings-James, Adelaide Cioni, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Martin O’Brien, Sasha Huber, Shawanda Corbett, The FLAG Art Foundation, Delfina Foundation, Hayward Gallery, kó, Visual AIDS, and Maxmillian Williams Gallery/Apartmento Magazine.
In addition, I have participated in interviews, talks, and keynote presentations at various institutions and platforms, including Walker Art Gallery | Nationa Musems, Liverpool, a-n Assembly x Black Curators Collective, Xavier Hufkens, NYU Abu Dhabi, Black Curatorial, Slade School of Fine Art, Liverpool Biennial, Decoding Ceramics Symposium, Shade Shorts podcast, IKON Gallery Birmingham, Whitechapel Gallery/Jarman Awards 2022, Live Art Development Agency (LADA), Association for Art History, Art Basel Hong Kong, Camden Art Centre, Chelsea College of Arts, Swansea Metropolitan University, Waag Society, CoCA: Women and Clay: Gendered Form, The Centre for Curatorial Studies (CCS) Bard, VO Curations, The Africa Centre, The University of Arizona, The Leach Pottery and Royal College of Art.
I am also on the advisory committee for the Contemporary Art Society.
Please use my contact page to discuss future collaborations, curatorial projects, art advisory, speaking engagements, and writing commissions.
Image (c) Nelta Kasparian
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