OGBECHIE. Sylvester Okwunodu,

Member, College Arts Association (CAA)
Member, African Studies Association (ASA)
Member, Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA).
Member, American Association of University Professors (AAU

2014-2015: Project Manager and Principal Consultant, Ford Foundation Office for West Africa
($200,000 for the National War Museum Umuahia Project)
2009 – 2010: Getty Scholar and Consortium Professor, Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles
2009: Melville J. Herskovits Award for Best Scholarly Publication on Africa, for Ben
Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist
2008 – 2012: Consultant, Development Alternatives and Resource Center (DARC: A
Ford Foundation West Africa grant program), Lagos, Nigeria
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2008– Director: The Africa Cultural Informatics Project
2008: UCSB Senate Research Award for the Ezechime Archive Project: Cultural
Embodiment in African Photographic Representation
2007: Daimler Fellow, American Academy in Berlin (Fall 2007)
2007: Fellow, TEDGlobal Conference on Africa, Arusha Tanzania, June 4-7, 2007.
2005: Secured $105,000 Mbanefo Charitable Foundation Gift to UCSB for support of
Research in African Art History
2005: UCSB Office of Academic Programs Instructional Improvement Grant for
Developing Instructional Resources on Contemporary African Visual Culture
2004: UCSB Academic Senate Individual Faculty Research Grant
2004: June 25, City of Philadelphia Citation Certificate for contribution to the 2004
Echoes of Africa cultural program
2003: UCSB Junior Faculty Incentive Award
2002: UCSB Office of Academic Programs Instructional Improvement Grant for Developing
Instructional Resources on Modern/Contemporary African and African Diaspora Art
History
2000: Northwestern University Art History Dissertation Writing Award
1997 – 1999: Rockefeller Foundation ADIA Fellowship
1997 – 1998: Institute of International Education’s Richard Horowitz Award for Professional
Development
1997: Smithsonian Institution Folklife Museum Certificate of Commendation
1996 – 1997: Smithsonian Institution Pre-doctoral Fellowship.
1995 – 1996: Northwestern University Integrated Arts Teaching Fellowship.
1994 – 1995: University Fellow, Northwestern University.
1994: Hans Panofsky Pre-dissertation Research Award.
1993 – 1994: Gwendolen Carter Fellow, Program of African Studies, Northwestern University.
1988: Nigerian National Council for Arts and Culture Prize.
1983 – 1988: Federal Government of Nigeria Merit Award for outstanding scholarship.

Publication: Books
1. Ben Enwonwu: The Making of an African Modernist. Rochester, NY: University of
Rochester Press, 2008 (Winner, 2009 Melville J. Herskovits Award of the African Studies
Association)
2. Making History: African Collectors and the Canon of African Art. Milan: 5 Continents
Editions, 2011.
Publication: Editor/Contributor
1. Editor, Artists of Nigeria. Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2012.
Publication: Academic Journals
1. Founder and Editor, Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture,
Numbers 1 – 12, 2007—date.
2. Guest Editor, History of Photography Special Issue on Africa (HoP, 34/2, May 2010)
Publication: Blog
AACHRONYM (http://aachronym.blogspot.com): Award winning blog on global African
Arts, Art-Equity and Cultural Patrimony
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Publication: Articles
“Transcultural Interpretation and the Production of Alterity: Photography, Materiality and
Mediation in the Making of “African Art”, in Gabriele Genge and Angela Sterken,
eds. Art History and Fetishism Abroad: Global Shiftings in Media and Methods. Bielefeld:
Transcript, 2014: 113-128.
“Contemporary Art, Ethnology Museums and Relational Politics”, Texte Zur Kunst, No. 91,
September 2013: 72-82.
“Dele Jegede: Portrait of the Art Historian as an Artist”, in Parodies of the Nation: Nigeria
And the Art of Dele Jegede, edited by Aderonke Adesanya and Toyin Falola. New Jersey:
Africa World Press, 2012: 243 – 255.
“Closed Loop Exhibitions”. Journal #3, Vol.1, No. 2, 2011: 35-40.
“Where is Africa in Global Contemporary Art? (“Wo ist Afrika in der Global
Zeitgenossischen Kunst?”), Savvy, Edition 1, 2011: 24-40.
http://www.savvy-journal.com/savvy_edition1/index.html
“Representation of African Peoples in the Art of Miguel Covarrubias”, in The African
Diaspora in the Art of Miguel Covarrubias. Los Angeles, California African American
Museum, 2011.
“Art Museums and Cultural Politics in Nigeria”. Kunst Und Politik: Jahrbuch de Guernica
Gesellschaft (Anna Greve, ed.). Gottingen: V&R UniPress GmbH, 2011: 129-139.
“The Curator as Culture Broker: A Critique of the Curatorial Regime of Okwui Enwezor in
Contemporary African Art”. Art South Africa, 9/1, 2010: 34-37.
“El Anatsui’s Intercultural Aesthetics and the Representation of Africa in Global Culture”, in
Art & Cultures: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui (Yukiya Kawaguchi, ed.). Osaka Japan:
National Museum of Ethnology, 2010: 32-43.
“Osahenye Kainebi and the Conundrum of Contemporary Painting”, in Osahenye Kainebi:
Thrashing. Exhibition catalog essay, 2009: 1-8.
“More on Nationalism and Nigerian Art”. African Arts, 42/3 (Autumn) 2009: 9.
“Interrogating African Modernity: Art Cultural Politics and Global Identities”. Critical
Interventions, 3/4 (Spring) 2009: 1-6.
“Victor Ekpuk: The Fortune Teller Suite”. Critical Interventions, 3/4 (Spring) 2009: 68-77.
“From Masks to Metal Cloth: Artists of the Nsukka School and the Problem of Ethnicity”.
Critical Interventions, 3/4 (Spring) 2009: 133-146.
“The Perils of Unilateral Power: Neomodernist Metaphors and the New Global Order,” in
Terry Smith, Okwui Enwezor, and Nancy Condee, eds. Antinomies of Art and Culture:
Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press,
2008: 165-186.
“Compagnons d’Armes: l’Avant-garde Africaine au Premier Festival Mondial des Arts
Negres de Dakar en 1966,” in Cedric Vincent, ed. Africultures: Festivals et Biennales
d’Afrique, No
. 73, 2008: 35-42.
(http://www.africultures.com/index.asp?menu=revue_affiche_article&no=7670&lang=_en
)
“Ndidi Dike: New Beginnings,” in Ndidi Dike, Tapestry of Life: New Beginnings. Lagos:
Ndidi Dike, 2008.
“Funeral of a Nigerian Chief”. Ventura: Ventura Life Magazine, October 2007: 6-14.
“Critique of Specular Reason: Contemporary African Photography in the Global Context”.
Feature review, History of Photography 31/4 (Winter) 2007: 384-387.
“Beyond Colonialism: Rethinking Ethnography, Museual Representation and the
Exhibition of African Arts”. Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin), September 12, 2007: 10.
“Comrades at Arms: The African Avant-Garde at the First World Festival of Negro Arts
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(Dakar 1966),” in Kathryn Smith, ed. One Million and Forty-Four Years (and Sixty-Three
Days). Stellenbosch, SA: SMAC, 2007: 88-103.
“Portrait of the African As a Modern Artist.” Critical Interventions Number 1, July 2007:
14-28.
“Hilda Hiary: A Way in the World”. Hilda Hiary 2007 (catalog essay), 2007.
“Is African Art History? Critical Interventions Number 1, July 2007: 3-5.
“Rethinking African Art: History, reception, and Canons,” in Dennis Schauffer, ed.
SAVAH. Witwatersrand, SA: SAVAH, 2007.
“The Historical Life of Objects: African Art and the Problem of Discursive
Obsolescence.” African Arts 38/4, 2005: 62-69, 94-95.
“Africa and the Theory of Everything: The Gabriel Oyibo Controversy.” Farafina No. 2
(Dec) 2005: 16-22, 26-27, 39.
“Beke Di Egwu (Awesome White Man): Simon Ottenberg and the Anthropological Inscription of
West African Cultures”, in Toyin Falola, ed., Igbo Arts and Culture and Other Essays by
Simon Ottenberg. New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2005: 15-35.
“Ordering the Universe: Documenta 11 and the Apotheosis of the Occidental Gaze.” Art Journal
64/1 (Spring) 2005: 80-89.
“Impossible Cities, Improbable Artists: Encounters with Africa at the Edges of Memory.”
Art Journal 63/4 (Winter) 2004: 137-140.
“Apparitions: Contemporary Allegories of the Cave”, in R. Lane Clark, Apparitions. Ojai,
CA: Canada Studio Press, 2004: 1-3.
“In Praise of Greatness: The Memory and Meaning of Ben Enwonwu’s Art and Life,” in Ben
Enwonwu Retrospective. Lagos: Institute of International Affairs, 2004: 4-8.
“Wonder Masquerade: Transfiguration and Embodiment in the Art of El Anatsui,” in El
Anatsui Retrospective. Llandudno: Oriel Mostyn Gallery, 2003: 11-15.
“Migration and Memories: Ways of the Rivers.” African Arts, 36/3 (Autumn), 2003: 82-86, 96.
“Art History’s Inscription of Modern and Contemporary African Art,” in Hans-Jorg Heusser and
Kornelia Imesch, eds. Visions of a Future: Art and Art History in Changing Contexts.
Zurich: Swiss Institute for Art Research, 2004: 129-146.
“Herza Barjon’s Pictorial Incantations”, in Herza Barjon: Fley Soley/Bohio.
(Claudine Michel, ed.). Miami: Multicultural Women’s Press, 2004: 36.
“Ben Enwonwu, Zarianist Aesthetics, and the Post-Colonial Criticism of Modern Nigerian Art,” in
C. Krydz Ikwuemesi, ed. The Triumph of a Vision: An Anthology on Uche Okeke and
Modern Art in Nigeria. Lagos: Pendulum Art Gallery, 2003: 175-193.
“Aesthetics and Artistic Identity in Modern Nigerian Art.” NKA: Journal of Contemporary
African Art, Numbers 16/17 (Fall/Winter), 2002: 24-31.
“Are We There yet?” African Arts 35/1 (Spring), 2002: 1, 4 -7.
“Liminal Spaces: Perceptions of Enwonwu’s Practice in Modern Nigerian Art,” in Simon
Ottenberg, ed. The Nsukka Artists and Nigerian Contemporary Art. Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 2002: 208-218.
“Contemporary Nigerian Art: Three Essays,” in N’Gone Fall and Jean Loup Pivin, Anthologie de
l’Art Africaine du XX Siecle (published in English as An Anthology of African Art: The
Twentieth Century). Paris: Revue Noir, 2001.
“Contested Vision: Ben Enwonwu’s Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.” Ijele: Art eJournal of
the African World, 1:2 (www.ijele.com/ijele/vol1.2/ogbechie.html).
“Issues of locale”. (Review of John Picton, et. al. El Anatsui-A Sculpted History of Africa; and Olu
Oguibe, Crossing: Time.Space.Movement). African Arts 32/4 (Winter) 1999: 91-92.
“Revolution and Evolution in Modern Nigerian Art: Myths and Realities,” in Contemporary
Textures: Multidimensionality in Nigerian Art, (Nkiru Nzegwu, ed.). Binghamton: ISSA,
1999: 121-138.
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“EarthHues: The Worldspace Art Initiative,” in Contemporary African Art. Washington DC:
Worldspace Corporation, 1998.
Entries on “Wilson Bigaud; Adrienne Hoard; Manuel Mendive; Robert St. Brice; Christian
Lattier,” in Thomas Riggs (ed.), Black Artists. New York: St. James Press, 1997.
“Exhibiting Africa: Curatorial Attitudes and the Politics of Representation in Seven Stories about
African Art.” African Arts 30/1 (Winter) 1997: 10, 12, 83-84.
Review of Olu Oguibe’s Uzo Egonu: An African Artist in the West. NKA Journal of Contemporary
Art, Summer/Fall 1997: 63.
“Visions of a Master: Ben Enwonwu Retrospective.” Armada. Vol. 1, No. 1 (July-September)
1991: 29-31.
“Rites of Passage,” in Tribute: Emeka Ezera Memorial Exhibition. Lagos: United States
Information Agency, 1991.
“The Art of Ben Enwonwu,” in Ben Enwonwu 70th Birthday Retrospective Exhibition Lagos: Ben
Enwonwu Retrospective Exhibition Organizing Committee, 1991.
“The Nsukka School in Modern Nigerian Art,” in Homage 1991, Nsukka: ArtGrads – UNN, 1991.
“AKA 90: A Pause at the Threshold,” in AKA 90, 5th annual exhibition catalogue.
Enugu: AKA Circle of Exhibiting Artists, 1990.
Conference Papers and Public Lectures
“Transcultural Interpretation and the Production of Alterity.” University of California Santa Cruz,
April 29, 2015.
“Cloth, Cultural Identity and the Contemporary Art of Yinka Shonibare.” Santa Barbara City
College, April 8, 2015.
“Photography and Cultures of Modernity in Africa.” Detroit Institute of Arts, December 14, 2014.
“Photography, Africa and Modernism.” SESC, Sao Paolo, Brazil. November 27, 2010.
“Contemporary Art, Ethnology Museums, and Relational Politics.” Pinacoteca, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
November 27, 2010.
“The Postcolonial African Museum in the Age of Cultural Informatics”. KEYNOTE LECTURE,
III Seminar on Museum Information Services, Sao Paolo, Brazil, Nov. 26-27, 2014.
“The Roots and Routes of Transnational Black Art: Ben Enwonwu’s Ebony Quest”. Volkswagen
Foundation’s Migrating The Black Body Symposium, Hanover, Germany, September 8-13,
2014.
“Knowledge Systems Discourse and the Future of African/Black Diaspora Studies”. Colloquium
on African and Black Diaspora Studies: The State of the Field and Future Directions,
DePaul University, Chicago, May 9, 2014.
“The Time of the Brave: Temporality and the Discourse of African Art”. On Time: African Art
and the Question of Temporality Symposium. Clark Institute, Williamstown MA, April
25-26, 2014.
“Renegade Insider: Cloth, Cultural Identity and the Contemporary Art of Yinka Shonibare,
MBE”. Invited Lecutre, University of Missouri St. Louis, April 15, 2014.
“Photography and Cultures of Modernity in Africa”. Northwestern University, Evanston, January
29, 2014.
“Art, Nationalism and Modernist Histories: Writing Art History in Nigeria and South Africa.”
Invited speaker, Art/Histories in Transcultural Dynamics, Late 19th to Early 21st Centuries
Conference. Free University, Berlin, December 5-7, 2013.
“Borders and Access: Contemporary African Artists and Global Mobility.” African Studies
Association annual conference, Baltimore, November 23, 2013.
“Onilegogoro (Skyscraper): Hairstyle as Cultural Metaphor”. Lecture, Museum of the African
Diaspora (MOAD), San Francisco, June 22, 2013.
“Photography and Cultures of Modernity in Africa”. Lecture, University of California, Berkeley,
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April 11, 2013.
“African Collectors and the Canon of African Art.” Symposium, Fine Arts Museum of San
Francisco de Young Legion of Honor, February 7, 2013.
“The Benin Corpus as Private Property: Redefining the Economic Value of African Cultural
Patrimony”. CIHA 2012 Conference, Nuremberg, Germany, July 16, 2012.
“Archiving Africa Across the Digital Divide”. Archives of Post Independence Africa and Its
Diaspora (UC-ASMRG/CODESRIA/AS-LEIDEN Conference), Dakar Senegal, June 20-
23, 2012.
“Photography and Cultures of Modernity in Africa”. Friends of Africa Group, Santa Barbara,
CA, April 26, 2012.
“Art Collections, Museums and Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Africa.” Keynote Lecture,
Festival of the Arts. California State University, Sacramento, April 21, 2012.
“Portrait of the Art Historian as a Knowledge Systems Manager.” Oklahoma Art Writing &
Curatorial Fellowship Workshop, April 14, 2012.
“Who Owns Africa’s Cultural Heritage: Museums, African Cultural Patrimony and the Issue of
Restitution.” Paper presented at the Stanford University Ruth Cantor Symposium on the
Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, January 21, 2012.
“The Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection: Making History”. (Invited Lecturer) Minnesota
Institute of Art, January 12, 2012.
“Nollywood Film Industry, Trend Media City and the Economics of New Media”. Paper
presented at the 2nd Annual Pan African Global Trade & Investment Conference.
California State University Dominguez Hills, October 14, 2011.
“Museums, Provenance and African Cultural Patrimony: A Proposal for Equal Access.” Paper
presented at the 15th Triennial of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Los
Angeles, March 25, 2011.
“Materiality and Mediation in the Production of “African Art”. Paper presented at the 15th
Triennial of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Los Angeles, March 23,
2011.
“The Curator as Culture Broker”. Graduate Seminar, University of Wisconsin, March
4, 2011.
“Museums, Knowledge Work and the Economics of Cultural Patrimony”. Paper presented at the
Center for Visual Culture, University of Wisconsin, March 3, 2011.
“Transcultural Interpretation and the Production of Alterity: Photography, Materiality and
Mediation in the Making of African Art.” Paper presented at Between Fetish and Art
Symposium, Universität Duisburg Essen/Ruhr-Universität Bochum, January 14, 2011.
“Curating Africa as a Site of Globalization.” In Exhibiting Africa: Curatorial Practice in the 21st
Century series. UCLA African Studies Center, November 15, 2010.
“El Anatsui’s Intercultural Aesthetics and the Representation of Africa in Global Culture”.
Minpaku Symposium on El Anatsui. Osaka: National Ethnographic Museum, October 31,
2010.
“Africa and Modernity”. Fowler Outspoken Conversation: Atta Kwami and Sylvester
Ogbechie. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum, October 24, 2010.
“The Curator as Culture Broker: A Critique of the Curatorial Regime of Okwui Enwezor in
Contemporary African Art”. Paper presented at The Task of the Curator Conference,
University of California Santa Cruz, May 14, 2010.
“Knowledge Work and the Production of Value in African Art”. Invited lecturer,
African American Studies Lecture Series, Duke University, March 31, 2010
The Economics of Cultural Patrimony”. “Getty Fellows Lecture, Getty Research Institute,
Feb. 7, 2010.
“Renegade Insider: Cloth and Cultural Identity in the Art of Yinka Shonibare”. Santa Barbara
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Museum of Art, May 13, 2009.
“African Art and Culture in a Global Context”. Keynote Address, Africa Week Celebration,
Willamette University African Studies Club, Salem, February 16, 2009.
“Monetizing Nigerian Arts and Cultural Production in the Global Economy”. Paper
presented to the First African Regional Summit & Exhibition on Visual Arts (ARESUVA),
Abuja, Nigeria, September 10, 2008.
“Scholarship and Professional Art Practice”. Lecture presented at the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, August 16, 2008.
“Transnationalism: Art and Identity in Global Africa”. Seminar, Center for
Contemporary Arts, Lagos, Nigeria, August 6-7, 2008.
“Enhancing Film and Production Design: Looking at the Big Picture”. Panel Presentation
(and Chair), Los Angeles: Nollywood Foundation Convention 2008, June 20, 2008.
“Interrogating African Modernity: Art, Cultural Politics and Global Identities”. Lecture,
University of Texas at Austin, March 25, 2008.
“Managing Nigeria’s Cultural Patrimony: The Need for Social Entrepreneurs”. Paper
presented at the Center for Contemporary Arts, Lagos, Nigeria, March 8, 2008.
“ African Cinema and the Diaspora: The Imperative of Academic Interrogation”. Paper
presented at the 2nd Lagos International Film Festival Conference, Lagos, December 6,
2007.
“African Art and the Colonial Encounter”. Lecture, Linden-Museum Stuttgart/Staatliches
Museum für Völkekunde, Stuttgart, Germany, October 17, 2007.
“Art History Beyond Europe: Perspectives, Protocols and Prospects. Institut für
Kunstgeschichte, University of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, October 26, 2007.
“Interrogating African Modernity: Art, Cultural Politics and Global Identities”. Daimler
Lecture, American Academy in Berlin. Berlin, Germany, November 6, 2007.
“From Masks to Metal Cloth: Interrogating the Aesthetic Regimes of African Art”. Paper
presented at the 2007 Mbanefo Foundation Conference: Interrogating African
Modernity: Art, Cultural Politics and Global Identities. University of California Santa
Barbara, May 4-5, 2007.
“Benin-Edo Art After the End of (Indigenous) History.” Paper presented at the 14th
Triennial Meeting of the Arts Council of the African Studies Association
(ACASA). May 2, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2007.
“Reclaiming Global Africa: Art, Knowledge Systems, and the Historical Life of Objects.”
Lecture, The College of William and Mary, March 23, 2007
“Contemporary African Art and the Global Art World.” Lecture, The College of William
and Mary, March 24, 2007.
“Developing Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Humanities: The African Knowledge Systems Theory
Initiative”. Paper presented to the Steering Committee of the University of California
Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching (UCCLLT), University of California
Los Angeles, April 21, 2006.
“Igbo Studies in the 20th Century: Culture, Consensus and Conflict”. Paper presented at
the 3rd International Conference of Igbo Studies Association, Howard University Law
School, Washington DC, April 1-2, 2006.
“Globalization, Art and the New African Diaspora: Visual Activism from AfriCobra to
Cyberspace”. Paper presented at the Murphy Lecture Series, University of Kansas,
Lexington, KS. February 28, 2006.
“Comrade At Arms: The African Avant-Garde at the First World Festival of Negro Arts (Dakar,
1966)”. Paper presented at the College Arts Association Annual Conference, Boston,
February 24, 2006.
“Uche Okeke and Modernist Identity in a Global Context”. Paper presented at the Newark
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Museum of Art, Newark, NJ; February 16, 2006.
“The Historical Life of Objects: African Art History and the Problem of Discursive
Obsolescence.” Paper presented at the Symposium on Emerging Scholarship in African
Art, Columbia University, New York, April 21-22, 2005.
“The Perils of Unilateral Power: Neomodernist Metaphors and the New Global Order.” Paper
presented at the Modernity and Contemporaneity: Antinomies of Art and Culture After the
20th Century Conference, University of Pitsburgh, Pittsburgh, November 5, 2004.
“Locating National Narratives of Modern African Art in Art History: Problems and Prospects.”
Paper presented at the Sites and Territories of Art History: CIHA (Comite International
d’histoire de l’art) XXXI International Congress, August 23, 2004.
“Arts of Africa: Traditional and Contemporary Forms.” Paper presented at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia, June 25, 2004.
“Allah and the Wall of Confrontation: Mythopoesis in Modern and Contemporary African Art.”
Paper presented at the 2004 Triennial of the Arts Council of the African Studies
Association, Boston, April 2, 2004.
“Ordering the Universe: Documenta 11 and the Apotheosis of the Occidental Gaze.” Paper
presented at the College Arts Association annual conference, Seattle, February 19, 2004.
“Art History and the Question of African Modernism.” Seminar presented to the Indiana
University African Studies Association. Bloomington, October 9, 2003.
“The Modernist Impulse in 20th Century African Art.” Paper presented to the Indiana University
African Studies Association. Bloomington, October 8, 2003.
“Reflections on DocumentaX1.” Paper presented at the Symposium on Curatorial Paradigms after
DocumentaXI. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, May 8, 2003.
“Narrating Modernity in 20th Century African Art.” Paper presented at the Getty Research
Institute, May 2, 2003.
“Aesthetics and Artistic Identity in 20th Century African Art.” Paper presented at the Center for
Black Studies, University of California Santa Barbara, March 11, 2003.
“Shifting Igbo Identities in the Post Civil War Nigerian Art World.” Paper presented at the
International Conference on Igbo Studies: A Tribute to Simon Ottenberg. Ithaca: Africana
Research and Studies Center, Cornell University, April 4-5, 2003.
“Bodies of Evidence: Title Regalia of the Igbo Ozo Organization.” Paper presented at The
Cultured Body: African Fashion and Body Arts Conference. Iowa: University of Iowa,
October 17-20, 2002
“Portrait of the Artist in the Shadow of Discourse: Art History’s Inscription of Modern and
Contemporary African Art.” Paper presented at the Visions of a Future: Art and Art
History in Changing Contexts Conference. Zurich: Swiss Institute for Art and
Research, 16-19 June, 2002.
“Black Aesthetics and the Politics of Representation: Ben Enwonwu’s 1950 Harmon
Foundation Exhibition.” Paper presented at the Blackness in Global Contexts
Conference, University of California, Davis, March 28-30, 2002.
“Transnational African Art and the Global Politics of Cultural Space.” Paper presented at
the Crossing Borders Conference, University of Iowa, March 8-10, 2002.
“Rethinking African Art History: Historiography and the Constitution of Knowledge.”
Paper presented to the Art History Department, Columbia University, March 4, 2002.
“Biennalle Culture and the Location of Contemporary African Art.” Paper presented at the
College Arts Association annual conference, Chicago, March 3, 2001.
“Ben Enwonwu and the Post-Colonial Criticism of Modern Nigerian Art.” Paper presented
at the University of California Santa Cruz, February 12, 2001.
“Ben Enwonwu, Igbo Aesthetics and the Constitution of Artistic Identity in Modern Nigerian Art.”
Paper presented at the University of California Santa Barbara, January 26, 2001.
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“Contemporary Nigerian Art and the Politics of Representation.” Paper presented at
St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, December 1, 2000.
“The Politics of African Art Criticism.” Paper presented at the African Art in the Museum: The
Politics of Ownership, Identity, and Display Symposium. Atlanta: Michael Carlos
Museum, Emory University, February 20, 1999.
“Ethnographic Present and Conjectural Futures.” Paper presented at the College Art Association
annual conference, Los Angeles, February 11, 1999.
“Liminal Spaces: Perceptions of Enwonwu’s Practice in Modern Nigerian Art.” Paper presented at
the Nsukka Group and the State of Nigerian Contemporary Art Symposium. Washington
DC: Smithsonian Institution, October 19-20, 1997.
“Making History: The Career of Ben Enwonwu.” Paper presented at the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington DC, February 11, 1997.
“The Burden of Heritage: Tradition and the Contemporary African Artist.” Paper presented at
Howard University, Washington DC, January 24 and January 31, 1997.
“Trends in Contemporary African Art.” Paper presented to the Graduate Students Forum,
Department of Art History, George Washington University, Washington DC, October
1996.
“ Masquerades and Metamorphosis: Contemporary African Artists and the (Re-)Invention of
Identity.” Paper presented at the Seventh Annual Graduate Students Art History
Symposium, Indiana University, Bloomington, November 4, 1995.
“Ethnicity and the Contemporary Igbo Artist: Shifting Igbo Identities in the post-civil War
Nigerian Art World.” Paper presented at Rethinking Igbo Art and Culture: African
Initiatives in Knowledge symposium, Institute of African Studies of Emory University,
September 30 – October 2, 1995.
“Songs of the City: Ben Enwonwu’s Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.” Paper presented at the Tenth
Triennial of the Arts Council of African Studies Association (ACASA), New York, April
19 – 23, 1995.
“Aesthetics and the Mythic Imagination: Three Contemporary African Artists.” Paper presented at
the Department of Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago, April 7, 1995.
“Contemporary Nigerian Artists and the Concept of Modernity.” Paper presented at the Institute
for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities, Northwestern University,
March 1994.
“Revolution and Evolution in Modern Nigerian Art: Myths and Realities.” Paper presented at the
Triennial Conference on Contemporary Nigerian Art. Lagos (Nigeria): Institute for
International Affairs, May 1993.
Academic/Professional Projects
Founder and Editor: Critical Interventions: Journal of African Art History and Visual Culture
(www.criticalinterventions.com)
Founder and Director, Aachron Knowledge Systems (www.aachron.com)
Founder and President, Nollywood Foundation (www.nollywoodfoundation.org)
Organizer and Director, Nollywood Foundation Convention 2009: Monetizing
Nollywood Media: Securing the Benefits of Existing Nollywood Content. Los Angeles,
June 19-21, 2009.
Organizer and Director, Nollywood Foundation Convention 2008: “Nollywood
Enhancing Film Production. Los Angeles, June 19-22, 2008.
Convener and Director, 2007 Mbanefo Foundation Conference: Interrogating African
Modernity: Art, Cultural Politics and Global Identities. University of California Santa
Barbara, May 4-5, 2007.
Organizer and Director, Nollywood Foundation Convention 2007: Nollywood—Emerging
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Talents and Technologies. Los Angeles, June 15-17, 2007.
Organizer and Director, Nollywood Foundation Convention 2006: Nollywood, African
Cinema and Beyond. Los Angeles, June 15-17, 2006.
Organizer and Director, Nollywood Rising– First International Nollywood
Convention and Symposium, Los Angeles, June 13-17, 2005.
Curatorial Experience
Curator, Making History: The Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection. Lagos: The Wheatbaker,
January 26-February 1, 2012.
Consultant, Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts from the Benue River Valley. Los Angeles: Fowler
Museum at UCLA, 2011.
Co-Curator, Art & Cultures: Africa in El Anatsui. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.
September 26, 2010-February 28, 2011.
Curatorial Adviser, Osahenye Kainebi, Thrashing (exhibition). Lagos: Center for
Contemporary Arts, 2009.
Patron and Consultant, Africa South Art Initiative (ASAI: http://www.asai.co.za/), 2009
date.
Consultant, Center for Contemporary Art, Lagos (http://www.ccalagos.org/), 2008-date.
Curatorial consultant, Another Modernity: Works on Paper by Uche Okeke. February –April, 2006,
Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ.
Member-Advisory Board (Curatorial Adviser), Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco,
CA.
Curator and Principal Consultant, The Arthur Mbanefo Charitable Foundation, 2004-2012.
Curatorial consultant, Power and Parody: The European through African Eyes, 1500-Present.
Detroit Institute of Arts 2004-2005.
Curatorial consultant, El Anatsui: Gawu. Llandudno, Wales: Oriel Mostyn Gallery, 2004.
Co-Curator, Worldspace Art Project, Washington DC, July – October, 1998.
Curatorial consultant, The Poetics of Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, National Museum
of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, June 1996 – October 1997.
Curator (with Barthosa Nkurumeh and Skoto Aghahowa), Uli Art: Master Works, Recent Work.
New York: Skoto Gallery, April 1995.
Curator, Tribute: Emeka Ezera Memorial Exhibition. Lagos: United States Information Service,
1991.
Curator (with Chinwe Uwatse and Emmanuel Arinze), Ben Enwonwu 70th Birthday Retrospective
Exhibition. Lagos: National Museum, 1991.
Curator, HOMAGE: Artgrads UNN Exhibition. Lagos: Instituto Italiano di Cultura, 1991.
Curator, (with Barthosa Nkrumeh) Creativity and Technology. Nsukka: University of Nigeria,
1990.
Curator, Synthesis ’89. Uyo: University of Akwa Ibom State, April 1989

Department of the History of Art and Architecture
Arts Building 1226
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106