Famous Nigerian Curator, Okwui Enwezor, dies of cancer at 55

Posted by News Express | 19 March 2019 | 740 times

•Late Okwui Enwezor

Friday, March 15, 2019, was a sad day for the art world, following the demise of Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, and poet, Okwui Enwezor.

Enwezor’s partner, Louise Neri told the New Yor Times that the highly influential curator died of cancer. He passed on in Munich at the age of 55.

Enwezor who is hugely celebrated for his works which seek to remap the world through art staged numerous engaging exhibitions in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States.

One of his most acclaimed show was the Venice Biennale of 2015, which showcased works with a markedly political edge, stemming from migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean to war in Ukraine.

Enwezor is credited as the first African to take charge of the 120-year-old festival, which is one of the most important fixtures on the global contemporary art circuit.

The official theme is for the exhibition was “All the World’s Futures”, and Enwezor set the tone for how that was interpreted by centering his own show around “Das Kapital”, Karl Marx’s dissection of capitalism’s origins and dynamics.

Prior to Venice Biennale, Enwezor who had been a director at Munich’s Haus der Kunst museum since 2011, said he wanted to get people thinking about the role of capital in the modern world.

Enwezor had a plethora of awards to his names, including the prestigious Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association.

In 2010, he was ranked 42 in ArtReview′s guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100.

Late in 2018 when his battle with cancer took a more challenging turn, Enwezor had to sign a separation agreement with Munich Haus der Kunst.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

Source: News Express