SAVE THE DATE: JULY 5

We´re thrilled to announce that AiR 351´s Strategic Board member Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is visiting us soon.
While in Portugal, Smooth will conduct local studio visits organized by AiR 351 and will present a lecture at Luso American Development Foundation´s headquarters in Lisbon on July 5th at 6pm. More information about this event will be released over the next few days.

This visit is made possible thanks to the FLAD generous support.

Short bio below:
Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi is the first Steven and Lisa Tananbaum Curator in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, New York. He leads the Africa group in the Museum’s Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives (C-MAP), MoMA’s internal research and exchange initiative devoted to art in a global context. His projects at MoMA include the exhibition Frédéric Bruly Bouabré: World Unbound (2022). Prior to joining MoMA, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2017–19), where he organized Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art (2020) and co-organized Ama: The Gathering Place (2019). Before Cleveland, Nzewi was Curator of African Art at Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum (2013–17). There, his exhibitions included Inventory: New Works and Conversations around African Art (2016), and he spearheaded the acquisition of works by artists such as Kader Attia, Candice Brietz, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Julie Mehretu, and Obiora Udechukwu.

Nzewi has co-curated major international exhibitions including the Dak’Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal, in 2014. He also served on the curatorial team of the 11th Shanghai Biennale in 2016–17, and a collaborator with the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de la Région Centre (FRANC) Orlean, France, for its inaugural architecture biennale in October 2017.

Nzewi holds a PhD in art history from Emory University. As an artist, he has exhibited internationally and is represented in public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, DC, and Newark Museum, New Jersey.