Okwui Enwezor

As a curator, Enwezor became known for his work on an exhibit of African photography at theGuggenheim Museum SoHo, New York City, in 1996; at the Africus Second Johannesburg Biennale in 1997; and as an adjunct curator (1998–2000) of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Later exhibits curated include a group show that traveled through Europe and Canada and a showing of the work of South African photographer David Goldblatt in 2000. A frequent lecturer and member of many art juries, Enwezor also coedited, along with Olu Oguibe, Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace (1999).
In 2002 Enwezor mounted his first major show, The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994, at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, New York. He put into practice his theory of art as an expression of social change when from 1998 to 2002 he was the artistic director of Documenta 11,the 11th in a series of international exhibitions that are held in Kassel, Ger., for three months every five years. Ambitious in size and scope, Documenta exhibitions have been described as “the Olympics of contemporary art.”
Enwezor was the first non-European to host the exhibition. He prepared for it with a series of seminars on international issues. He did not shy away from political issues, including globalization, and was understandably comfortable looking beyond American and European traditions into African arts. His emphasis on ideas over objects—in contrast to the “art for art’s sake” philosophy—was evident in his development of the The Short Century exhibit, which was also the title of the book that preceded his gallery exhibit in New York City.
In 2006 Enwezor organized Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography at the International Center of Photography, New York City. Intended to address a trend he termed Afro-pessimism, the exhibit contradicted negative contemporary Western attitudes and stereotypical ideas of Africa.