Okwui Enwezor

Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. He lived in New York City and Munich.

Publications

• editor, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Duke University Press, 1994-2019. [1]
• "Reframing the Black Subject: Ideology and Fantasy in Contemporary South African Representation", Third Text 40, 1997, pp 21-40. (English)
• "Where, What, Who, When: a Few Notes on 'African' Conceptualism", in Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin 1950-1980s, eds. Jane Ferver, Luis Camnitzer and Rachel Weiss, New York: Queen's Museum of Art, 1999, pp 109-117. Catalogue essay. (English)
• editor, with Olu Oguibe, Reading the Contemporary: African Art, from Theory to the Marketplace, London: Institute of International Visual Arts (InIVA), 1999, 432 pp. TOC.
• editor, The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994, Munich: Prestel, 2001. Introduction, Chronology. (English)
• editor, Documenta 11 Platform, 5 vols., Kassel: Documenta, and Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 2002-2003. Volumes: 1. "Democracy Unrealized", 2002, 411 pp; 2. "Experiments with Truth: Transitional Justice and the Processes of Truth and Reconciliation", 2002, 404 pp; 3. "Creolité and Creolization", 2003, 273 pp; 4. "Under Siege: Four African Cities, Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos", 454 pp; 5. "Exhibition", 2002, 620 pp. (English)
  • Enwezor, "The Black Box", in Documenta 11 Platform: Exhibition, 2002, pp 44-55. (English)
• "Documentary/Vérité: Bio-Politics, Human Rights and the Figure of “Truth” in Contemporary Art", Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art 5(1): "Art & Ethics", 2004, pp 11-42; repr. in The Green Room: Reconsidering the Documentary and Contemporary Art #1, eds. Maria Lind and Hito Steyerl, Berlin: Sternberg, and Annandale-on-Hudson, NY: Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art/Bard College, 2008, pp 62-102. (English)
• Grossausstellungen und die Antinomien einer transnationalen globalen Form / Mega Exhibitions: Antinomies of a Transnational Global Form, Munich: Fink, 2002, 59 pp. Lecture delivered at Humboldt University, Berlin, 4 Dec 2001. (German)/(English). English version repr. in Manifesta journal 2, Winter 2003/Spring 2004, pp 6-31.
• "Postcolonial Constellation: Contemporary Art in a State of Permanent Transition", Research in African Literatures 34:4 (Winter 2003), pp 57-82. [2] (English)
• "The Artist as Producer in Times of Crisis", 2004. [3] (English)
• Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, Gottingen: Steidl, and New York: International Center of Photography, 2006, 383 pp. Catalogue of exh. held at the International Center of Photography, New York, 10 Mar-28 May 2006. [4], [5]. Exh. reviews: Cotter (NYT), Duran (SECAC Rev). (English)
  • "The Uses of Afro-Pessimism". (English)
• editor, The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society, Sevilla: Fundación Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla (BIACS), 2006, 335 pp. Catalogue. (English)
• "History Lessons", Artforum 46:1, New York, Sep 2007, pp 382ff. (English)
• Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Photography, New York: International Center of Photography, and Göttingen: Steidl, 2008, 264 pp. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the International Center of Photography, New York, Jan. 18-May 4, 2008. [6]. Exh.reviews: Avgikos (Artforum), Bastian (Am Archivist), Cotter (NYT), Saltz (NYMag), Swartz (NYArts), Maimon (CAA), Pelizzari (Ciel variable), Bodinson (Photo & Culture). (English)
  • "Archive Fever: Photography Between History and the Monument", pp 10-51. Lead essay. (English)
• editor, with Terry Smith and Nancy Condee, Antinomies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity, Duke University Press, 2008, PDF. (English)
• with Chika Okeke-Agulu, Contemporary African Art Since 1980, Bologna: Damiani, 2009, 366 pp. Preface, Chs 1-7. (English)
• "Modernity and Postcolonial Ambivalence", in Altermodern: Tate Triennial, London: Tate, 2009; upd. version, South Atlantic Quarterly 109:3 (2010), pp 595-620. (English)
• editor, Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity: Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection, Burlafingen: Walther Collection, and Göttingen: Steidl, 2010, 445 pp. Catalogue. (English)
• editor, Intense Proximity: An Anthology of the Near and the Far. La Triennale 2012, Paris: Centre national des arts plastiques: Artlys, 2012, 687 pp. Catalogue. (English)
• editor, with Rory Bester, Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, Munich: Prestel, 2013, 543 pp. Catalogue. (English)
• editor, with Katy Siegel and Ulrich Wilmes, Postwar Art: Between The Pacific And The Atlantic 1945-1965, Munich: Haus der Kunst & Prestel, 2016, 846 pp. Catalogue. Exhibition website. [7] (English)
  • Postwar: Kunst zwischen Pazifik und Atlantik, 1945–1965, Munich: Haus der Kunst & Prestel, 2016, 846 pp. [8] (German)
• editor, Sarah Sze: Centrifuge, Cologne: Buchhandlung Walther König, 2018, 128 pp. Catalogue. (English)

Interviews

• Carol Becker, "Interview with Okwui Enwezor", Art Journal 57:2 (Summer 1998), pp 101-107.
• Carol Becker, "A Conversation with Okwui Enwezor", Art Journal 61:2 (Summer 2002), pp 8-27.

Links

• Obituaries: Jason Farago (New York Times), Jörg Heiser (Frieze), SFAI, Juliet Art Magazine, Andrew Russeth (ARTnews), Victoria L. Valentine (Culture Type), Claire Bishop (Third Text), Pamela M. Lee (October).