Appointed Curator of the Nigeria Pavilion at next years Venice Biennale! I can’t quite believe I am typing this. I am beyond honoured to have been appointed as the Curator of the Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. This is not something I take lightly. The hard, dedicated and enduring work has already begun. Working with and having the trust of all the artists I have selected - so dynamic, cross-generational, and interdisciplinary - has and will continue to be the greatest privilege as we imagine, dream and seek to realise the important mission of representing a nation. The Nigeria Imaginary will be a manifesto. Indeed, the imagination is the most fertile and powerful tool of liberation we possess. I have a change agenda. To be able to enact and articulate this - as a young curator, committed to the power art has to change us - at one of the art worlds most important platforms will be the most important thing I have done in my career so far. Not for or in service of myself, but in a mission to show the world that there is so much more than we have been told. So much more to Nigeria and to Africa that limited imaginations have propagandised. This project is deeply aligned with our mission at MOWAA (@mowaaofficial ) As MOWAA’s Curator of Modern and Contemporary, it has been deeply meaningful to begin to demonstrate our vision with this project, but also to ensure its relevance and meaning back home. With MOWAA’s organisational support, the Nigerian Pavilion will tour back to MOWAA as the inaugural exhibition of our Rainforest Gallery, the first exhibition space opening in the MOWAA Creative District in 2025.

Very exciting news ✨ Thrilled and honoured to join the @emowaa_ team as the newly appointed inaugural Curator (Modern and Contemporary) at EMOWAA (Edo Museum of West African Art), a new David Adjaye designed (@adjaye_visual_sketchbook) museum district in Benin City, Nigeria opening in stages from 2024. As a Nigerian, London born, I am spiritually connected to this mission and honoured to be part of this history making project. Having joined the team some months ago, I've learnt so much from so many members of the team - expanding my view from archaeology to important aspects of museum practice that one is rarely afforded the opportunity to be the part of from the get go. It is an enormous opportunity to be part of shaping the blueprint for what a museum of the future and a museum in Africa can be, as well as working with academics such as @chikaokekeagulu who I have so admired as I build and research the first research and exhibition projects as well as collection strategies. I talk a lot more about the plans over at @theartnewspaper.official What a journey! 🇳🇬 more exciting news to come... Typing from Lagos! I am loving splitting my time between Nigeria, the U.K. and wherever a plane will take me ✈️

LAGOS CALLING: Elle U.K. Nov Issue Honoured to be a main feature in @elleuk November Issue. Interviewed by @omfgnoway I speak about growing up in Earls Court as an art loving curious child, a path changing bursary to @courtauld curating guerilla-style at end of lease retail properties all the way up to the current moment as I plan my vision as the Curator of the Nigeria Pavilion at next years Venice Biennale and work on the most exhilarating history making project as the Curator at @mowaaofficial - Museum of West African Art There's lots of bits about my life between London and Lagos, as well as next weeks upcoming collaboration with @christiesinc as the auction "Know Who We Are" sees global artists donate works to support the Nigeria Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2024 and MOWAA's Rainforest Gallery, designed by architect @worofila , where the Nigeria Pavilion will return to. Pinching myself to be called this years "breakout star" but know that at the heart of it all, my vision is much bigger than myself. Ever afraid of a self centric life, this is about expanding history. Thrilled that this history is being considered "safe in [my] hands" Wearing some of my favourite Nigerian designers @torloweiworld @kadijuofficial @oiza.___ 🇳🇬 🇳🇬 🇳🇬 🇳🇬 🇳🇬 EIC @kenyahunt Photographer @laurenmaccabee Deputy Editor @lenadecasparis Styling @crystallecox Art Director @lozzysj Shoot Producer elizabeth_m_wood Features Director @hlucynat Hair @abrakennedy Make up @dalila_mua Writer @omfgnoway

🔊Yinka Shonibare Studio Visit with Aindrea Emelife, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at MOWAA and the Nigeria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.⁣ ⁣ Growing up between London and Lagos, Yinka Shonibare CBE, RA, is renowned for meshing together British and African visual motifs in his works. In the present work we see a child, arms outstretched, holding a bouquet of flowers. Caught mid-motion, she appears endearingly human—and yet her head has been replaced with a globe. She sports a vibrant blue batik dress, and equally striking yellow stockings.⁣ ⁣ These various motifs cleverly bring together cultural, political and ecological concerns in a way which is both charismatic and visually appealing. ‘Flower Kid (Girl)’ (2022), has been donated by the artist to MOWAA, who are collaborating with Christie’s to raise funds for the MOWAA Rainforest Gallery and Nigeria Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2024.⁣ ⁣ Estimate: £100,000-150,000. 🗓️20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale | Live Auction: 13 October, London.⁣ ⁣ #MOWAA #Frieze20 #ThisIsLondon @aindreaemelife @shonibarestudio @mowaaofficial

Christie's and the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) are collaborating to raise funds for MOWAA and its initiatives to create a cultural ecosystem in Benin City based on the art of the past, present and future.⁣ ⁣ A number of artists have generously agreed to donate original works of art to the auction, including Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare, Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Lakwena Maciver and Victor Ehikhamenor.⁣ ⁣ Proceeds from the sale of the works will go towards MOWAA initiatives including the presentation of the Nigerian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, 2024—commissioned by the Governor of Edo State and curated by Aindrea Emelife—and the 20-acre Creative District, including the Rainforest Gallery.⁣ ⁣ #MOWAA @aindreaemelife @kehindewiley @shonibarestudio @tunjiaj @lakwena @victorsozaboy @mowaaofficial

S2 E20: BLACK VENUS. Curator @aindreaemelife discusses her brilliant exhibition at #SomersetHouse, which brings together the work of 18 Black women and non-binary artists to explore the othering, fetishisation and reclamation of narratives around Black femininity. #InTalksWithPodcast 🎧 via link in bio Sound: @worgiebeats Logo: @patrickwaugh #aindreaemelife #blackvenus #soniaboyce #carriemaeweems #lornasimpson #amberpinkerton #courtauldinstitute #art #artpodjast

Black Venus opens today @somersethouse I spent this morning with two incredible girls from Gloucester who reminded me why I curated this exhibition and made it even more clear why these stories, ideas and histories need to be told. This is a show I wish I had seen but it is also a point of self discovery, protest, and call to arms to see and re see. It is a reminder that there is so much more than we have been told. Thank you @omfgnoway and @guardian for the 4 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️ . They are not mine to keep, they are for the artists and for all of us. They are an encouragement that there is so much world out there, and artists like those featured in the show have an incredible talent in showing us what we need to see in the most unique of ways. Each artist in the show has allowed me to question myself and the world. Thank you to you all! @lornasimpson @ambercashmere @muholizanele @cyborg_artist @carriemaeweems #tabitarezaire pure bred.mongrel @reneecoxstudio @mingsmithphoto @ayanavjackson @maudsulterestate @delphinediallo @widline_ @soniaboyceartist @coreensimpson @kara_walker_official @houseofblackstyle #maxinewalker

People and (Places): Aindrea Emelife (London via Lagos) @aindreaemelife on spiritual protection I always carry books with me. I have said that we carry history with us, but I take this literally. I feel grounded with the knowledge of the past and so the possibilities of the future with me. I find a home in people, and I find it in art. Museums were always a place of solace for me. Hyper curious, sometimes dangerously slow, museums are where curiosity is rewarded and where stories live. And each time you visit the story is told differently. I find peace and empowerment in that. All the world's futures lie ahead. With @bonnielangedijk and @benjaminbreading #Tabayer #PeopleAndPlaces #Oera #CraftedInItaly #FairminedGold

People and (Places): Aindrea Emelife (London via Lagos) @aindreaemelife on place "Place" has been increasingly something of interest to me. Being part of a Diaspora, of Nigerian heritage but British-born, I have always felt in-between places. Equally, I have always been intrigued by how places can live in one’s soul even when we are elsewhere physically. Traveling ever more frequently to Nigeria has activated a sense of belonging. I navigate the world through art as understanding myself and humanity through art and art history has always felt like the most comfortable and exploratory lens. As a child who couldn't travel much, art opened the world to me and took me through time and to different places. So, working more in Africa and with art and history opens new parts of myself I perhaps haven't yet understood. Places provide context. I have a chameleon soul. I feel lucky to feel at home in two places, but in terms of discovering myself, the place that I am drawn to is Nigeria. There is so much of that world, so many ideas, so many stories that have been invisible and are ready for resurrection. With @bonnielangedijk and @benjaminbreading #Tabayer #PeopleAndPlaces #Oera #CraftedInItaly #FairminedGold

BEHIND THE EXHIBITION BLACK VENUS - Introducing Aindrea Emelife (@aindreaemelife). Aindrea Emelife - is a Nigerian-British curator and art historian from London. She trained as an art historian at the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art and has quickly gone on to become a ground-breaking new voice in an art world otherwise steeped in tradition. Aindrea debuted her first column for the Financial Times aged 20 years old, and has been published widely and internationally, including articles in The Guardian, Vanity Fair, The Telegraph, BBC, GQ, Frieze, The Independent, BBC and ArtNet. She features regularly on podcasts, most recently Intelligence Squared, Talk Art, and The Art Newspaper Podcast and is dedicated to public speaking, usually pertaining to discussions of contemporary art, popularising art history and championing female, black or artists of colour. Moreover, Aindrea is the curator behind BLACK VENUS—an exhibition that surveys the legacy of Black Women in visual culture and celebrates Black beauty, while investigating the many faces of Black femininity. Starting April 5th, BLACK VENUS will be on view at Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Don’t forget to RSVP to Aindrea’s Curator & Artist Talk with Museum of the African Diaspora on April 6th (link-in-bio). To learn more about BLACK VENUS, click the link-in-bio. #BlackVenus #MoAD #AindreaEmelife

In this weekends @ft_weekend Life & Arts I was invited by the FT and Ben Okri to muse on the state of things. As the newly appointed Curator (Modern and Contemporary) at The Edo Museum of West African Art (@emowaa_ ) I have been privileged and humbled to be part of the imagining of a future for West African art. Amidst media grabbing discussion about the overdue restitution of objects, it is clear to me that the happy flappy self congratulation of returns needs to go further. Restitution is meaningless if it doesn't catalyse and connect with the present and future. @emowaa_ is emblematic of this optimistic future. Stretching from ancient to contemporary it addresses a need to connect with a young, creative population, provide economic opportunities and expand and build museum infrastructure and sites of learning on the continent. But it cannot be an island. If globalisation can bring Africa to the world and the world to Africa, then how does this circulation bring returns? In this article, I envision a truly circular global art ecosystem and authentic collaboration between our hallowed halls in the West and institutions in Africa. I discuss @emowaa_'s plans, my first academic focus as the new Curator and wax lyrical on one of the favourite pieces of Nigerian Modernism: Nigeria 1959 by Demas Nwoko. The past few months have been enriching collaborative thinking between some of our greatest minds. It is an honour to learn, grow and be part of this story. But moreover, it is a call to arms. Restitution is the start of the conversation. Now, we must look to the future. @emowaa_ (Edo Museum of West African Art) is a David Adjaye designed museum and cultural district and opens in stages from 2024. (@adjaye_visual_sketchbook @adjayeassociates )

Finally opening a show in the UK Black Venus comes to Blighty 🇬🇧 this Summer 🧜🏾‍♀️ 💜