OLU OGUIBE | ART CAREER

Olu Oguibe Virtual Gallery
The Olu Oguibe Homepage
Email

Olu Oguibe has lived and practiced on three continents as an artist, art historian, critic, exhibitions curator and poet. He has also taught literature, art, and art history in universities and colleges including Goldsmiths College London, University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of South Florida where he held the Stuart Golding Endowed Chair in African Art. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in major galleries and museums around the world, as well as biennials and triennials including the Venice Biennale. He has curated exhibitions for the Tate Modern in London, the City Museum in Mexico City, the Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa, and the Latere of the Venice Biennale, among others. In 1997 he organized the international conference for the Johannesburg Biennale. Oguibe is also a musician as well as author of many books including three award-winning volumes of poetry. He edited Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art for six years, and writes regularly on art, literature, politics, new information technology and other matters. His most recent books are Reading the Contemporary: African Art from Theory to the Marketplace [MIT Press, 2000] and The Culture Game (University of Minnesota Press, 2003) An American citizen, Oguibe was born in West Africa. He lives in Rockville, Connecticut.

Personal
Born October 14, 1964.
B.A. magna, Fine and Applied Arts, 1986
Ph.D. Contemporary Art, University of London, 1992

Exhibitions 2003
The American Effect, Whitney Museum of American Art, July-Sept '03
Black President, New Museum, New York, July-Aug, '03
Specificity, Riva Gallery, New York, May-June, '03

Hans Bogatzke Collection, BPS 22, Chaleroi, March-May ‘03

Next Flag: The Africa Exile Museum, Migros Museum, Zürich, June 03

Olu Oguibe & William Kentridge, Casino Luxembourg, Oct 03 2nd Biennal of Ceramics in Contemporary Art, Liguria Italy, Sept  03

Solo Exhibition, Shanghai China, Nov 03

One Person Exhibitions
Olu Oguibe: Many Thousand Gone, Suite 106, New York, 2002
Olu Oguibe: Ashes, The Scene Gallery, New York, 2002
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery Sydney, Australia, 1994
Annaherung, Rasthaus Gerstoffen, Germany, 1994
ArchivGalerie, Freidberg, 1994
Songs for Catalina, Savannah Gallery, London, 1994
Recent Works, Savannah Gallery, London, 1993
A Gathering Fear: Drawings, Savannah Gallery, London. 1992
Works and Words, Bhownagree Gallery, London., 1991
The Emperor and the Poet, Iwalewa Haus,Bayreuth. 1994
Statements, Syrian Club, Lagos. 1989
...unbind me, Didi Museum, Lagos. 1988

Select Group Exhibitions
Family, The Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
A Doll's House, Hernie Onstad, Oslo
Binary Code (with Christoph Draeger), Akus Gallery, Willimantic, CT
ibridAAfrica, Sardegna, Italy
Re: Duchamp, Latere exhibition, 49th Venice Biennale.
7th Havana Bienal
Marking the Territory, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
Greater New York, PS1, New York.
Gorney Bravin + Lee, New York
Insertions, Apex Art, New York
Mirror's Edge, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver.
__ Castello di Rivoli, Torino
__Tramway, Scotland.
__Charlottenborg, Copenhagen
Resistancias, Koldo Mitxelena, San Sebastian, Basque Country.
Continental Shift, Bonnefantenmusuem Maastrich
Echigo Tsumari Triennial of Public and Environmental Art, Japan.
Mirror's Edge, BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden.
The Edge of Awareness, World Health Organisation Hq, Geneva
__United Nations Headquarters, New York
__SESC Pompeia, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2nd Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa
University Galleries, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Seven Artists of the Nsukka Group, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
Transforming the Crown, The Bronx Museum, New York.
Undercurrent/Overview, Tampa Museum of Art, Florida
Cross/ing: Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa
Museum of African American Art, Tampa, Florida
Kulte, Künstler, Könige in Afrika, Schlossmuseum, Linz, Germany
Interzones, Kunstforeningen, Copenhagen.
__Uppsala Konstmuseum, Slottet
Hitch-Hiker, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
Truth? & Electronic Media, University Galleries, Gainesville, Florida
Inklusion/Exklusion, Graz, Austria
Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, Malmo Kunsthalle, Sweden.
Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Gotcha, Momenta, New York.
An Inside Story: African Art of Our Time, Setagaya Art Museum,Tokyo.
Modern Life, Aljira Centre for Contemporary Art, Newark, New Jersey.
La Citta Ideale, Fiumara D'Arte, Museo Domestico di Pettineo, Sicily.
Begegnung (with F. Heinze and C. Ruckert) Hanse Galerie, Stralsund
Kunst Werk Not, Archiv-Galerie, Friedberg.
Modern Visions, Zora Neale Hurston Memorial Museum, Orlando.
Seeing and Believing, The Economist, London.
Sixteen, Savannah Gallery, London
The Naked Face: Contemporary Portrait Society, The Gallery, London
Seen/Unseen, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
2 Friedberger Skulpturenpfad, Friedberg, Germany
Contemporary British Art, Design Centre, London.
Savannah Gallery, London.
Castle Court, Belfast.
Centre 181, London.
Square Gallery, Bradford.
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Commonwealth Institute, London.
Italian Cultural Institute, Lagos.

Select Honors and Awards
Hundred Works and their Masters, Archiv Gallery, Friedberg, 1994
Honourable Mention Noma Awards for Publishing in Africa, 1993
New Art Collaborations Award Arts Council of Great Britain, 1992
Christopher Okigbo All-Africa Prize for Literature, 1992
British Foreign Office Scholars Award, 1989-1992
Nigerian National Council for Arts and Culture Prize, 1986
Indira Gandhi Memorial Prize, 1986

Collections
Ruiz Costa Reis Collection, Brussels, Hans Borgatske Collection, Brussels
University of Nigeria, University of Bayreuth, Didi Museum Lagos, ArchivGalerie and the City of Friedberg, and private collections in Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, US and Nigeria.

Residences and International Projects
2003 Guest-Teacher, Dasarts Block 18, Goree Island, Senegal
2000 World Views, World Trade Center, New York
1999 Resident Scholar, Rockefeller Research Center, Bellagio Italy
1995 International Art Project (La Citta Ideale) Sicily, Italy
1994 Artist in Residence ArchivGalerie Friedberg bei Augsburg,
1990 Artist in Residence Iwalewa Haus University of Bayreuth,

Radio and Television Features
BBC World Service, BBC Africa Service, BBC Midlands, Spectrum Radio, Central Office of Information, London, Radio Bayern Munich, Deutsche Welle TV Cologne, Erste Program Cologne, Bayerische Rudfunk Munich, ABC National Radio Sydney, ABC TV Sydney, Radio Nigeria Lagos, Nigerian Television Authority Network Lagos.

Public Art
'Lyriker', Public sculpture, Ötmaring, Germany.
The Longest River, Echigo-Tsumari, Niigata Japan